2-Hour Online Guided Autobiography Introductory Workshops May 29 and June 3
And we’re off! I’ll be holding two 2-hour online Guided Autobiography introductory workshops on Wednesday, May 29, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. eastern and Monday, June 3, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. eastern (for the morning people!)
THEY’RE FREE! My introductory workshops are always complimentary.
Register here for Wednesday, May 29
Register here for Monday, June 3
What is Guided Autobiography? Let’s begin with its description from the Guided Autobiography website:
“Guided Autobiography (GAB) has been researched and developed by Dr. James Birren over the past 40 years as a method for helping people document their life stories. Guided by a trained instructor, participants are led through themes and priming questions that evoke memories of events once known but filed away and seemingly forgotten. Each participant writes a two-page story on a particular theme each week, brings the story to class and reads it to a small group of receptive classmates. Writing and sharing life stories with others is an ideal way to find new meaning in life and to put life events into perspective. While connecting with one another on their journeys of self-discovery, participants feel enlivened by the group experience and gain a greater appreciation of their own lives and of the lives of others. GAB can be a powerful catalyst for improved self-esteem, self-confidence and communication within communities and within families.”
Read more about Guided Autobiography here.
These workshops are limited to 6 people*, so RSVP and grab your spot now.
*I’ll add additional online workshops as each one fills up. First come/first reserved. – Mark
Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies Launches ‘Biographers in Conversation’ Podcast
“In this episode of Biographers in Conversation Gabriella chats with Bernadette Brennan about her book: A Writing Life. Helen Garner and her Work, a literary portrait of one of Australia’s most vital and revered authors.”
About Biographers In Conversation
Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the multiplicity of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories.
In each episode she explores elements of narrative strategy such as structure, use of fiction techniques, facts and truth, beginnings and endings and to what extent the writer interpreted the evidence rather than providing clues and leaving it to readers to do the interpreting themselves.
She also asks writers how they researched their books; how they balanced a subject’s public, personal and inner lives; and ethical issues such as privacy and revealing secrets.
One Thing or Another: Pills for All Our Ills
One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all.
Mark McNease
Too many episodes of heartburn after a meal? It must be GERD! Cholesterol numbers not what they should be? Here’s a statin!
I don’t know about your doctor—how could I?—but my primary care physician is one of those nice, softspoken, well-meaning doctors with a great office manner who reacts to every ill I present him with by prescribing some new medication. Most recently, it was something for Restless Leg Syndrome, which I dutifully took as prescribed for several weeks while I kept reading about its applications and side effects. Two things stood out: it can increase my risk of deadly melanoma, and it shouldn’t be stopped without first weaning off it for an extended period of time. Hmm, I thought, finger to lips while I processed this information. I’m not interested in making myself more vulnerable to skin cancer than I already am, as a fair-skinned older man of British and Irish descent. And I really don’t want to take something I can’t decide to stop taking without lowering the dose first over a period of weeks. I don’t have the patience for it, and I don’t like anything that can have its hooks that deeply into me.
Of course I stopped on my own, with just a day of real or imagined discomfort. The bigger issue for me is that my doctor, like too many others, made no attempt to determine if I do, in fact, have Restless Leg Syndrome. This kind of instant diagnosis happens all the time. Too many episodes of heartburn after a meal? It must be GERD! Cholesterol numbers not what they should be? Here’s a statin!
Upcoming Workshops in May and June
Things are kicking into high gear. I’ll be offering four more 2-hour workshops (May 4 Fiction Essentials is full!). Follow the links beneath each description to register. Two are online, two are in-person (the Fiction Essentials workshop on June 9 is for congregants of the First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hunterdon County, where I’m a member).
“Storytelling is healing. As we reveal ourselves in story, we become aware of the continuing core of our lives under the fragmented surface of our experience. We become aware of the multifaceted, multi-chaptered ‘I’ who is the storyteller. We can trace out the paradoxical and even contradictory versions of ourselves that we create for different occasions, different audiences… Most important, as we become aware of ourselves as storytellers, we realized that what we understand and imagine about ourselves is a story. And when we know all this, we can use our stories to heal and make ourselves whole.”
—Susan Wittig Albert, Writing From Life
An Interview with Steve Dolainski, Guided Autobiography Instructor
I’ve been friends with Steve Dolainski for over a decade. We co-edited and published Outer Voices, Inner Lives: LGBTQ Writers Over 50, an anthology that became a Lambda Literary Award finalist in 2014. I finally met Steve in person a year ago when we were visiting my sister in Ojai, California, and he told me about recently becoming a certified Guided Autobiography instructor. I was hooked by the description and what Guided Autobiography has to offer, and earlier this year I took the instructor’s training to became certified myself.
Enjoy this 15-minute interview recorded yesterday. It will be part of my weekly co-hosted Twist Podcast, but it stands alone very well.
GAB Gazette Features Guided Autobiography Instructor Steve Dolainski
Featured Guided Autobiography instructor Steve Dolainski, who introduced me to GAB. My own workshops and courses start this spring.
https://birrencenter.substack.com/p/featured-gabber-stephen-dolainski?utm_medium=email
“Stephen Dolainski was drawn to GAB after learning about it through friends in Oregon in 2022.
“I did some research on GAB and, as a long-time adult educator and writer/editor, I was intrigued with the concept and the methodology. I immediately knew that GAB was something for me to explore,” he said.
After taking the the training in November 2022, he wanted to work with LGBTQ seniors.
“When I received certification, I contacted the Los Angeles LGBT Center and proposed forming a GAB class,” he said. “In 2023, we offered three GAB 1 classes and one GAB 2 class. More classes will be offered in 2024.”
Stephen loves teaching GAB and talks about how it how much it benefits writers by sharing their truth.”
Savvy Senior: Recommended Vaccines for Medicare Recipients
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
My husband and I recently turned 65 and would like to find out which vaccines are recommended and covered by Medicare?
New Beneficiaries
Dear New,
All recommended vaccines for adults, age 65 and older, should be covered by either Medicare Part B or Part D, but there are some coverage challenges you should be aware of. Here’s a rundown of which vaccines are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and how Medicare covers them.
Covid-19: Even though Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency, it can still cause severe illness, particularly in older adults. Because the Covid virus continues to mutate, new vaccines are being developed to keep pace, so the CDC recommends that all seniors stay up to date with the latest Covid vaccines, including booster shots.
All Covid-19 shots are covered 100 percent by Medicare Part B.
Upcoming Workshops in May: 2-Hour Guided Autobiography Introductory Workshops, and Fiction Writing Essentials
Ready, set … write! I’ve got two 2-hour Guided Autobiography workshops coming up in May, one in-person and one online.
Join us in May for one of two 2-hour Guided Autobiography workshops.
“Storytelling is healing. As we reveal ourselves in story, we become aware of the continuing core of our lives under the fragmented surface of our experience. We become aware of the multifaceted, multi-chaptered ‘I’ who is the storyteller. We can trace out the paradoxical and even contradictory versions of ourselves that we create for different occasions, different audiences… Most important, as we become aware of ourselves as storytellers, we realized that what we understand and imagine about ourselves is a story. And when we know all this, we can use our stories to heal and make ourselves whole.”
—Susan Wittig Albert, Writing From Life
Guided Autobiography centers on thematic journaling, with participants writing on a selected theme for the workshop. Courses and condensed workshops include handouts, thought- and conversation-generating ideas and suggestions, ice breakers, and the pleasures of bonding with the group members while we explore the stories we’ve told with our lives.
The journey toward ourselves begins with a sentence. We are the ‘I’ in storytelling. Participants will receive the workshop outline (PowerPoint), complimentary folder, yellow writing pad, and pen.Biz Bites: How to Give a Great Book Reading (Courtesy Mystery Writers of America-NY)
I personally love doing book events, especially the Q & A portion where I engage with the audience. Have you wondered what some basic tips are for giving a good reading? Check out this slideshow with helpful suggestions from the Mystery Writers of America-New York chapter. (I’m on the board, fyi.) See you at the next book event!