Three interrelated literary events on the topic of “honoring and making peace with our loved ones” will be held in Tucson in January and February.  The workshops will be held at two different venues, and the last event is a reading and open mic.

On Sunday, January 16, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Congregation Chaverim, 5901 E. 2nd Street, Deborah Mayaan, MA, will lead writing exercises and Rabbi Stephanie Aaron will teach about an ancient practice of choosing the spiritual qualities you would like to pass on to the next generation.

The workshop will be repeated on Wednesday, February 16, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, 2221 N. Rosemont Blvd. in the Great Room.

Deborah Mayaan and Lynn Saul will read from their work followed by an open mic at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, 2221 N. Rosemont Blvd. in the Great Room on Sunday, February 20, from 1:30 to 3 p.m.,

People are encouraged to attend one of the writing workshop but it is not a prerequisite to read at the open mic. For more information, contact Deborah Mayaan, deborah@deborahmayaan.com, 881-2534.

All events are free and funded by a grant from Poets and Writers.

Deborah Mayaan is a healing practitioner, artist  and writer, whose writing has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Jewish Post, Natural Awakenings, Spirituality & Health, Tucson Green Magazine, Tucson Lifestyle, and the Tucson Weekly.

In teaching workshops, she creates a safe place for people to write for self-healing, This workshop and reading series arose out of her work with clients who were facing life-threatening illnesses and desired to make peace with their lives, her own experience with writing as a healing activity, and her recent writing to heal family issues that were unresolved at the time of her mother’s sudden death last spring.

Lynn Saul s a teacher, writer, and retired attorney.  Her multi-genre book Learning to Say “Satoraljaujhely”, was published in July 2010 and features poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction and photographs based on her family from Hungary and her own experiences traveling there twice.   Other publications include poems and fiction in several literary magazines and anthologies including SandScript, Sarah’s Daughters Sing, Poetica, and Jewish Women’s Literary Annual. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in American government from Harvard University, and she has lived in the Tucson area since 1971.

Journalist Sheila Wilensky has a gift.  Her in-depth interviews get right to the core of who her subjects really are and, as the assistant editor of the Arizona Jewish Post (AJP), she’s had lots of opportunities to sharpen her listening and writing skills.  Now Sheila is bringing her talents to the general public with her new business, Spinning Family Stories: Writing Your Life.

Her flyer explains that she can “weave a narrative from your life into a chapter / book / work of art” with photographs, illustrations, digital stories, or a memory quilt  “based on in-depth, friendly interviews”.  Anyone who has wanted to write an autobiography or the story of their family but is daunted by the task and doubts their abilities would benefit from this service.  Sheila can craft a creative, witty, literary legacy of their life stories by asking questions that people haven’t been asked before that really makes them think about the story.  She says, “My favorite thing that readers have told me about my AJP profiles is “You really got it right.”

Our lives are all interesting to our families — what they don’t know about us, what they think they know but got wrong. I want to “spin” well-written — even literary — witty, insightful stories of people’s lives. Not the chronological boring stuff that you often see in family histories. I want readers to stop, maybe even gasp, and say, “Hot damn, that’s what it was like.”

Sheila has more than 35 years experience as a writer, editor, high school social studies teacher and owner of Oz Books, the oldest children’s bookstore in Maine, from 1982-1997. Besides the AJP she has been published in Publishers Weekly, New England Reading Journal, Bangor Daily News, Tucson Weekly, Zocalo and other publications.

You can contact her at sheilawilensky@gmail.com to find out more about writing your life.  Or become a fan of Spinning Family Stories on Facebook.

“As you tell a story, you make stuff up along the way … and when you ask people for ideas they give you good ideas. Then you can write a story.” – anonymous 4th grader.

I’m teaching a class at Casa Libre called “The Art and Craft of Storytelling for Writers” and I had a lot of fun doing research so I could talk intelligently about the differences between storytelling and writing and the way one enhances the other.  It all boils down to storytelling being an active exchange between teller and listener and storywriting being a passive exchange between writer and reader.

The dynamic flow over a live connection is what sets apart a told story. The basic meaning of the story remains the same but each telling is a reaction to the audience and their responses.  The teller can change content or presentation dependent on the feedback she gets, thus the listener affects the outcome.

The written story is fixed and unchanging.  Although the reader may derive different meanings from re-readings, the story is static after it’s on the page and there is no interaction between reader and writer.

Practicing one of these arts can enhance the other.   Some storytellers organize their thoughts by writing out the story, some use outlines, some repeatedly tell the story to themselves or to others; it all depends on ones learning style and how the story is going to be used (i.e. telling to your grandchildren v. performing on stage).  Writing out a story can help develop the underlying meaning and establish the structure.

Conversely, a good way to develop a writers voice (the author’s style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author’s attitude, personality, and character) is to tell the story aloud and hear yourself speak (you can even tape record yourself).  Telling is also a way to recall stories and story elements and to identify important details.  Then, as our 4th grader tells us, you can write the story.

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories”.    ~ Ursula K. LeGuin