Use Your Words A Writing Guide for Mothers

by Hopper, Kate; Edelman, Hope

• ISBN13: 9781936740123
• ISBN10: 1936740125
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-17
• Publisher: Viva Editions

Summary

Writing Is an Act of Discovery

Author Biography

Kate Hopper holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and has taught creative writing at the University of Minnesota, Jack Pine Writers’ Bloc, Hennepin County Libraries, The Loft Literary Center, and online. She has taught the self-designed course, USE YOUR WORDS, at the Loft since 2006, and in 2009, she launched the online version of the class, drawing students from across the United States and Europe. Kate led the first annual USE YOUR WORDS Writing Retreat with students from around the country in February 2010. She presented on the panel “Parents as Writers: Our Children as Subjects” at the 2009 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference and on a panel about navigating the publishing world at The Loft Literary Center’s 2009 Memoir Festival. Kate is a regular guest on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s parenting blog and on the Twin Cities’ FM107.1’s “Good Enough Moms” discussing motherhood, writing, and teaching, and she will be featured in the June 2010 issue of Minnesota Parent in an article about balancing motherhood and writing. Kate also coordinates the annual USE YOUR WORDS Reading, which showcases the works of mother writers from around the country. New York Times bestselling author Hope Edelman has agreed to travel to Minnesota in the fall of 2010 to participate in the 4th Annual USE YOUR WORDS Reading. Kate has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Gesell summer residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, and a 2008 MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, and she was awarded the English Department Outstanding Teacher Award for Graduate Assistants at the University of Minnesota. Her writing has appeared in Brevity, Literary Mama, Mamazine, Minnesota Parent, MotherVerse, nytimes.com, Preemie Magazine, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her first book, Ready for Air, is a memoir about learning to live with uncertainty in the wake of her first daughter’s premature birth. It is currently being prepared for submission to interested editors. She writes about reading, writing, teaching, and motherhood on her blog, USE YOUR WORDS: Mothers Who Write, which was named one of the top five websites for mothers who write by Suite101.com. Kate is co-editor for Literary Reflections at Literary Mama. Kate is a member of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI), formerly the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM), the first international feminist organization devoted specifically to the topic of mothering and motherhood. MIRCI has members from over 20 countries around the world. Kate is also a member of the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), a national organization supporting the professional empowerment and personal growth of women in journalism.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction: Why Use Your Words?
Getting Started	p. 1
Creative Nonfiction and Motherhood	p. 15
Motherhood Myths and Models	p. 25
Our Children as Characters: Character Development	p. 35
Voice in Creative Nonfiction	p. 55
Using Humor as a Tool	p. 73
Mother Fear	p. 85
Writing the Hard Stuff	p. 99
Where Is Your Mind?: Reflection in Creative Nonfiction	p. 115
Our Parenting Partners	p. 137
Structure: How to Put it Together	p. 149
Re-visioning Your Writing	p. 163
Publishing: From Blogs to Books	p. 181
Keeping the Momentum Going	p. 197
Appendix	p. 203
About The Authour	p. 225
Index	p. 227
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