All the students’ work is published in an online anthology and presented at a reading ceremony later in the year.
Jude Walsh, a published author who writes memoirs, self-help, personal essays, and fiction, has been teaching the seminar for over a decade. In that decade, she has watched many people become the writers that they said they never could be. Walsh said that anyone can be a writer and writing experience isn’t needed for the seminar.
“My promise is, you will finish and we will publish in our anthology, at least one story,” she said. “The second promise is that you’ll learn some writing craft. It’s honestly different every session. I kind of look at what’s in front of me. It might be structure, using description or writing dialog. It just depends on what kind of stories are coming from my writers.”
The seminar class meets once a week for two hours. The first couple classes focus on coming up with ideas.
Then the group works on giving each other feedback and editing the stories. The presentation is the culmination of the seminar but happens at a later date.
Walsh also likes to give writing prompts during class as well as using examples of writing to stimulate the group’s creativity.
“We talk about the ‘why’ of the story,” Walsh said. “Because sometimes people just write this happened, this happened and this happened. What do you want the takeaway from this story to be? It might be a lesson you learned. It might be a tender moment that really encapsulates your family dynamic.”
Walsh said she is always impressed with the stories her students develop. Students often explore the experiences they have had in the past, which can be terrifying, heartbreaking or awe-inspiring.
According to the seminar description, students share their wisdom and perspective that goes along with being older than 50 years old. Walsh said the seminar is also good for mental stimulation.
“It’s intellectually challenging to take something you just through about and put it into not just a journal entry, but a story and then take something away and has juicy detail and will move someone in some way. It’s so rewarding,” she said.
According to Walsh, other benefits so the seminar include the stories themselves and the collegiality. Walsh said the group is always supportive of one another and listens to some very personal stories that some writers might be intimidated to share in some settings. Lastly, Walsh said that because the stories are so personal, the students become friends.
“At the end of class, people say, ‘I learned so much about my fellow writers,’ and you see them differently,” Walsh said. “If you know someone who’s been an executive, and now they’re writing tenderly about a fishing trip with their buddies or how it felt to be fired.”
Walsh said the class looks forward to the presentation night when they read their works in front of friends, family and their fellow students. For future classes, Walsh is looking forward to using new prompts from various sources. She often will use children’s books for inspiration, and plans on using a new book for the next seminar.
MORE DETAILS
For information on how to register or for information on other UDOLLI seminars, visit udayton.edu/continuing_education or call 937-229-2347.
About the Author