A 5-Week Workshop Bridging Oral Storytelling and Written Memoir
Thursdays: January 29 - February 26, 6-9 PM
“Writing voice” can feel elusive and intimidating, but storytelling offers us a powerful pathway to finding it. Understanding ourselves out loud, with others, can be the key to a vital, engaging voice on the page. In this workshop, we’ll harness the power of storytelling to discover and develop our unique written voices.
Many writers approach their work by first writing silently, and then trying to shape it into something that sounds more immediate or intimate. This workshop flips that process: we’ll start with our conversational selves, find the meaningful stories we want to tell/examine how we tell them, and then adapt those spoken stories into written memoir pieces that retain their immediacy and power.
Our stories can also serve as the generative seeds for memoir and other genres of writing, offering a collaborative and community-minded way to find what matters to you and identify the stories that are asking to be told.
Over five sessions, you'll craft personal stories, practice telling them in our supportive workshop community, and discover your own "storytelling fingerprint"— the way you sound, and what makes a story sound like yours. Then we’ll turn to adaptation: how to take spoken stories and make them work on the page, and how to use these techniques in the rest of our writing lives.
Sessions will include generative exercises, oral practice in small groups, and short written assignments. We’ll have both short reading and listening assignments. Students will develop 2-3 oral stories and create written drafts that maintain the vitality and immediacy of their spoken voice.
$275 Members/$475 Nonmembers
Micaela Blei is a story editor, educator and writer living in Portland, Maine. She’s a two-time NYC Moth GrandSLAM champion and founding Director of Education at The Moth, where she designed the storytelling curriculum now used by thousands worldwide. For the past four years, she's been the Professor of Storytelling Performance at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She holds a PhD in Education with research focused on narrative identity and storytelling performance.
Micaela has toured worldwide with her own stories, which have been featured on This American Life, The Moth Radio Hour, Risk, and other platforms. Her Audible Original memoir "You Will Not Recognize Your Life" was a category bestseller, and her debut full-length memoir is forthcoming from HarperOne in 2026. Having coached hundreds of storytellers and writers from nervous first-timers to seasoned professionals, she specializes in helping people figure out that they're actually very, very interesting.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due two weeks prior to the workshop start date, at 9:00 a.m.
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MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION