10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Bryan Charles, author of the memoir, “There’s A Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From” (Grove Press, 2010), will lead a writing workshop, sponsored by the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, aimed at helping attendees share their personal story. “I'm going to be talking about memoir, and specifically about my experience turning a draft of a barely veiled autobiographical novel into a work of total nonfiction,” Charles said of the workshop, which will be held from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Stone House, Church of the Savior, 934 North Weisgarber Road. “We'll look at examples from a handful of memoirs and talk about the various styles used to create ‘characters,’ set scenes, etc… Some of the passages will have the kind of texture and detail we associate with novels, which gets into all kinds of tricky areas familiar to just about everyone in the wake of James Frey; others will be as brisk and minimalist as police blotters,” he added. Charles knows a thing or two about the differences between writing fiction and memoir. His first book length publication was a work of fiction, titled, “Grab on to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way” (Harper Perennial, 2006). He’s also written a second nonfiction book, titled “Pavement’s Wowee Zowee,” published by Continuum in 2010, about the band and the recording of its third studio album. Charles grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and moved to New York City after college. He eventually got a job at Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center. His memoir tells the story of his struggle to carve out a life as a writer, and to find meaning in the alien landscape of New York City. The book ends shortly after his survival of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Charles quit his job after the attacks to devote his time to writing. He got his master’s degree in fine arts from Brooklyn College in 2003. He followed his girlfriend, Karla Wozniak, to Knoxville when she was hired to teach art at the University of Tennessee. Cost for the workshop is $25 for KWG members and $30 for nonmembers. To register, go to www.knoxvillewritersguild.org or send your check to KWG Workshops, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville TN 37939-0326. For more information about Charles, visit theresaroadtoeverywhere.tumblr.com. For more information, contact: Adria Amos Publicist Knoxville Writers’ Guild 865-809-8723 AdriaAmosKWG@gmail.com
