True Stories: Writing Your Memoir
With Dani Burlison
Do you have an idea brewing for a personal essay or memoir but missing the motivation to get it on paper? Do you already have a completed essay that you’d like to breathe some new life into? Are you in the beginning stages of writing your story but not sure which direction to take it? Whether you’re writing for your own pleasure or have a piece you’d like to send out for publication, this workshop is for you!
In this ArtStay, we’ll discuss the art of memoir and the personal essay and all that comes with it– vulnerability, issues with confidentiality, self-reflection, and more. We’ll also engage in writing activities and you’ll have opportunities to receive feedback and support with fine-tuning manuscripts.
Dani has a Master's Degree from the school of Culture, Ecology & Sustainable Community at New College of California and is an alumna of the Squaw Valley Writer's Workshop, the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, LitCamp and the Woodland Keep Residency. She was a writer in residence at The Future’s ‘Witch Residency’ in Minneapolis in 2021 and at Cove Park in Scotland in 2022. She has co-hosted the Get Lit! Reading Series with Kara Vernor since 2013, and co-founded the Petals & Bones Writing Workshops with Leilani Clark in 2010.
Dani teaches memoir-writing classes at a local community college (and in various other programs) and is a trauma-informed yoga instructor (RYT 200) developing workshop curriculum to bring yoga and self-care practices to activists. She is also an Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner, trained through Ancestral Medicine, and a student of herbal medicine at Heartwood in Bedfordshire, UK. A former housing case manager with veterans, Dani grew up in a large working poor family in a rural farming community in the Northern Sacramento Valley and is a single parent of two young adults. She lives on unceded Southern Pomo and Wappo land aka Sonoma County, California.
Dani’s website: daniburlison.com
