Event Detail



Saturday July 13th, 2024
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute
8 South Michigan Avenue, Ste 700, Chicago, IL 60603

9:30am - 10:30am Light Breakfast & Introductions
10:30am - 11:30am Workshop
11:30am - 12:30pm Q&A
SPEAKERS: Dr. David Hicks
2 CE Credits

 

Description:

One of the most effective ways of processing grief is to express one’s experience

as a story. Following a tried-and-true formula (“Once upon a time . . . . Then, one day . . .”),

participants will learn how to help grieving members of their community to identify, begin, and

structure an autobiographical story (fiction or non-fiction) about a loss they have suffered.

Participants will finish the workshop with a three-sentence (for children) or three-paragraph

(for adults) beginning of a new essay, story, novel, memoir, or children’s story based on the

death of a loved one, with optional follow-up advice (for staff) on how to run such a workshop in

the future.
 

Instructor Bio:

David Hicks, PhD is a five-time “Professor of the Year” and Director of

Creative Writing at the nationally ranked Wilkes University MFA graduate program. He is the

author of two novels--WHITE PLAINS (Bower House Books) and THE GOSPEL ACCORDING

TO DANNY (forthcoming, Vine Leaves Press)—and an autobiographical children’s book, THE

MAGIC TICKET (Fulcrum Books, 2024), all based on the story structure that is the focus of this

workshop. (THE MAGIC TICKET is based on David’s experience as a child, when he lost his

little sister and found a sanctuary for his grief in his local public library.) An experienced

developmental editor, David has helped over sixty writers to be published for the first time.

 

Learning objectives:

After attending this event, learning will be able to:

  1. Write works of fiction or nonfiction about a loss they have suffered as a way to process grief, expressing the experience as a story using the “Once upon a time . . . . Then, one day . . .” formula.

  2. Apply what they have learned in order to run their own such workshop.