Literature Does Not Have to be a Spectator Sport

“Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature” is the weighty name of a free forum taking place Saturday, April 23, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Montgomery County Community College Advanced Technology Center Room 101.

The forum is part of the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference’s outreach effort and is being hosted by Montgomery County Community College’s Arts and Humanities Division. 

In the first part of this two-hour seminar, Dartmouth professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing two memoirs—“Courage to Walk” and “Losing Jonathan”—affected his life, as well as his relationship with literature, according to Dana Resente, assistant professor of English at MCCC.

In addition to writing and teaching, Professor Waxler cofounded “Changing Lives Through Literature” in 1961, an alternative sentencing program based on the idea that “literature has the power to transform men’s and women’s lives.”

 Resente said the second part of the seminar will feature another Waxler —Jerry Waxler — who will help writers make maps to find their own stories and to participate in literature. Jerry Waxler teaches memoir writing at Northampton Community College, Resente said, and is the author of “Learn to Write Your Memoir” and more than 200 essays about reading and writing memoirs.  

Jerry Waxler is a PWC Board of Directors member and Free Forum committee chair. 

“He has been teaching and writing about memoirs for some time now,”  Resente said in an email interview. 

“Jerry contacted Robert Waxler (no relation) to speak with him at the forum,” Resente said. “Robert Waxler has written memoirs himself, so he will speak about how writing the memoirs affected his life.” 

This Free Forum outreach comes a bit more than a month before the 63rd annual Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, to be held June 3, 4 and 5 at the Holiday Inn in the historic district of Philadelphia.  

“Our keynote speaker will be Nelson Johnson, author of (the HBO series) ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ In addition, we'll be having editor and agent appointments for conferees, 23 different workshops and features on writing, manuscript critiques, manuscript raps, and various contests,” Resente said.  

More information about the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference and details about the upcoming session are available at www.pwcwriters.org. 

Resente said that the Free Forum on memoirs is just part of the conference’s community outreach effort, which includes making Philadelphia Writers’ Conference Board members and other speakers available to present topics to the public at sites in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties at no cost.