Southern Oregon: Molly Tinsley on Memoir Workshop

Register here for the Zoom meeting.
PULLING THE THREAD: DEMYSTIFYING MEMOIR
Southern Oregon Willamette Writers’ Workshop
November 7, 2026 2-3:30 pm
The good news: memoir is not autobiography. It does not have to present an all-inclusive account of your life. And it's a lot like what we rely on to write strong fiction. Memoir’s challenges come from its claim to reality.
Following a free writing exercise about the life story you’re working on or wish to, we’ll address these challenges: truth-telling, hurting feelings, rights to dialogue, and most important, memoir’s need for a sharp focus: pulling a single thread from the welter of experience and selecting details that support and enrich it.
To help with that, we’ll tackle these important questions:
As the protagonist: who are you? Who will you choose as your supporting characters? What are the issues and where are the hotspots?
Throughout our workshop, we’ll emphasize the circular, recursive process of writing memoir.
About Molly Tinsley
In a burst of sanity, Molly Best Tinsley left the civilian faculty of the US Naval Academy and headed west to Oregon to write full-time. She wound up co-founding the small press, Fuze, as well, which published 23 titles before Covid shut its doors. Her own work includes the textbook The Creative Process, five novels, a memoir, and the story collection Throwing Knives, recipient of the Sandstone Prize and the Oregon Book Award. Her latest novel, A Modest Trumpet Fanfare, came out in May of 2026.

About Our Events

Willamette Writers meetings are free and open to all writers. Middle and high school writers are encouraged to join Young Willamette Writers. Attendees are welcome to make a donation to help support the cost of events. If you feel sick, please stay home and join us online.

We look forward to seeing you there!