Instructor: Cindy Beer-Fouhy
Three hour virtual sessions on Thursdays
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM EST
Workshop is limited to 12 participants
$580

Note: there is a 10-week session of this class starting February 9th, 2022. Please return to the registration page if you are interested in learning more. 

Course Description

Write what should not be forgotten.”  ― Isabel Allende

If you have already begun writing memories of your life experiences, and would like to continue exploring more ideas, this is the class for you!  Through stimulating writing exercises in a supportive group, we will revisit and write about the important moments in our lives. Topics we will explore include childhood memories, careers, love and family, transformational experiences and personal quests.  We will write poetry and prose to capture memories and to discover the richness of our lives – the lighter, humorous moments along with the more difficult experiences we have come through.  People of every background will learn from each other’s experiences and inspire each other to keep writing insightful and thoughtful life stories.  We will write and share our work during class.

How it works: During the workshop, participants will have time to recall events, discuss memories with others in the group, and write. Each 3-hour session includes: preliminary group discussion about writing topics to encourage interaction among participants, topic-based sample poems or stories by emerging or published authors (including Stanley Kunitz, Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, Mark Doty), a writing prompt, and individual sharing of stories aloud. Photographs, tactile and sensory objects will also be utilized to elicit memories.

Who Should Take This Class?

People over age 50 who have been writing already or who are at a stage when they are ready to start putting their memories on the page. People of every background will learn from each other’s experiences and inspire each other to keep writing insightful and thoughtful life stories.          

Your Instructor

Cindy Beer-Fouhy is a poet, freelance writer, and arts consultant and has been teaching writing in schools and community facilities for over 50 years.  Former founder and director of the Literary Arts Department at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts and curator of the award-winning Creative Arts Café poetry series.  Her poetry and essays have been published in literary journals, magazines and anthologies including Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough (Rutgers University Press) and her articles and interviews have appeared in ArtsWestchester’s  Arts News, Roll Magazine and Westchester Family.  Her poems have been winners of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Greenburgh Poetry Competitions. Cindy served as a judge for the National Jewish Book Awards in Poetry and has been a consultant for the Master of Arts in Writing program at Manhattanville College. She is on the advisory committee of the Hudson Valley Writers Center’s Slapering Hol Press and is a member of the National Writers Project. In addition to teaching in the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence, she is currently a Teaching Artist through ArtsWestchester, Lifetime Arts, Inc., and BOCES and facilitates Life Stories Writing Workshops in Senior Centers, Mental Health Facilities and Public Schools.

Testimonials

“This was the best class I've had at the Writing Institute thus far! Cindy creates a wonderful safe space for students all of an older generation. This allowed us to talk about and develop an incredible range of topics from the weekly prompts. She created a safe space that encouraged  understanding and supportive responses.” - former student

"As someone who has always loved writing, and who has not had much time to do so lately, diving into Cindy's course was the best experience I could have hoped for.  I am a teacher, and I know good teaching when I see it.  Cindy was warm and funny and comfortable, but also right on point with her comments and questions.  I can't wait to take another course with her." - former student

"I found Cindy Beer-Fouhy's Life Stories class to be a great source of newly generated material. Both the in-class exercises and the longer assignments generated a range of meaningful pieces on different topics that I am including in my memoir-in-progress." - former student

“I love Cindy’s class because I believe it improved my writing, and accomplished that in a community of writing students whom I get the privilege of learning from, in large part because Cindy created such a good context for that exchange.” - former student

"The class “Life Stories: A writing workshop for ages 50+” has been momentous for me. I’ve been carrying all these life experiences in my head that I’ve wanted to write about for years but never been able to. With Cindy’s class, the process has been almost magical — following prompts and assigned reading have allowed the words to flow easily onto paper! The right tone in her class discussions have allowed all of us to participate without hesitation and judgement. I hope to take a few more sessions with Cindy so I can get all these stories out!" - former student