Virginia Woolf said, “If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.” Writing personal narratives, even if you consider yourself a fiction writer or a poet, can add resonance to your characters, images, and stories. This four-week workshop will concentrate on techniques for working with voice and persona to create rounder characters and to deepen aspects of our writing that we might otherwise overlook. Our objective will be to add more texture and meaning to our work. I’ll invite participants to generate material and to share it as time permits.

Week 1: Recalling. We’ll begin by considering memory and how we can use it to recall the experiences that have shaped us.

Week 2: Showing. We’ll talk about how to dramatize experience.

Week 3: Speaking. We’ll consider the sources of individual and communal voices.

Week 4: Thinking. We’ll practice the reflective voice to deepen the significance of our personal stories.

Lee Martin is the author of the novels, The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; River of Heaven; Quakertown; Break the Skin; Late One Night, and Yours, Jean. His memoirs are Gone the Hard Road, From Our House, Turning Bones, and Such a Life.  He is also the author of two short story collections, The Least You Need To Know, and The Mutual UFO Network, as well as a craft book. Telling Stories: The Craft of Narrative and the Writing Life. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper’s, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Glimmer Train, The Best American Essays, and The Best American Mystery Stories. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He teaches in the MFA Program at The Ohio State University, where he is a College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor, and where he was also the winner of the 2006 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.