The Illustrated Flash Memoir, in person at HVWC

You don’t need to be able to draw to illustrate your written work. Using collage, photography, ephemera, you’ll not only write but also illustrate short memoir pieces, designed to tell one story from your life. We’ll see how objects can inspire stories, and then send the stories off in search of methods of illustration. No limits on what you can use: a wrapper from a pack of gum, a menu, a matchbook from that ill-fated date. We’ll start with generative writing exercises, then have time to work on illustrations. Bring (printed) photos and ephemera; other materials will be provided.

This workshop will take place in person at our historic Philipse Manor Train Station location at 300 Riverside Dr, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, right off the Metro North’s Hudson line.

Sarah Van Arsdale’s sixth book, Taken, a poetry collection, was published in 2021 by Finishing Line Press. She is the author of four books of fiction and a single book-length poem, titled The Catamount, published by Nomadic Press in 2017. Her fourth book of fiction, a collection of novellas titled In Case of Emergency, Break Glass, was published by Queens Ferry Press in 2016. Her third novel, Grand Isle, was published by SUNY Press in 2012. Her second, Blue, winner of the 2002 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, was published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2003, and her first, Toward Amnesia, was published in 1996 by Riverhead Books. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College, and teaches in the Antioch University/LA low-residency MFA program. More of her drawings, short films, and writing can be seen at sarahvanarsdale.com