Cost and Registration Information

Early Registration Price (January 9 at 10 am – January 26 at 4 pm): $130
Regular Registration Price (January 26 at 4 pm – first day of class): $143

Members, seniors, and students get a 10% discount.

Online registration is closed, but you can still register by phone. Please call (312) 255-3700 to do so.

Excuse our dust!

Beginning January 2018 the Newberry will be undertaking renovation of much of the first floor. The Adult Education Seminars Program will still have use of the basement classrooms, but please check this link frequently for the latest conditions - which exterior doors are open or closed, where to find an accessible entrance, which restrooms are available, etc.

Because of the renovation, the Newberry Bookstore will be closed during the Winter/Spring and Summer 2018 terms. As such, seminar participants will be responsible for acquiring all required texts for their seminars on their own. We apologize sincerely for the inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding. We have put together a list of helpful resources that should make it easy to find the books you need.

Seminar Description

This workshop is offered for those interested in writing family stories—those real-life accounts of the important people, places, and events in their own and their family’s lives. These stories of loss and triumph, of love and regret, and of lessons learned may be recorded as letters, diary entries, character sketches, or eulogies. We will discuss the merits of each of these forms and practice writing in them. Everyone will leave the workshop with a handful of good stories to share at family gatherings, as gifts, or as keepsakes. One session.

Carol LaChapelle is a writer, teacher, and the author of Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories. She has taught writing and journal writing workshops in Chicago for 25 years, including at the Newberry Library.

Materials List

Recommended:

• Carol LaChapelle, Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories: 167 Ways To Tell Your Life Stories. Marion Street Press, 2008. ISBN#: 978-1933338323.

First Reading:

• There is no reading assignment for the first class.

This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program. Learn more about our registration procedures.