Ten-week Life Writing Class to launch May 5

For the past 20 years the Life Writing Class, directed by journalist, editor and author Dr. John Patrick Grace, has helped the area’s aspiring memoirists and life-based fiction writers to begin, shape up and then publish their stories in book form. Sixty-three books have been issued to date by alumni of this class.

The class begins a new life this season under Marshall University’s Continuous Learning program, directed by Elizabeth Appell Sheets. The inaugural ten-week class under Marshall auspices launches Tuesday, May 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. It will begin online with Zoom and may later shift to a classroom location on campus, as coronavirus guidelines from West Virginia authorities may permit.

The Life Writing Class previously met as part of the not-for-profit publishing consortium known as Publishers Place Inc.

“We are delighted to welcome the Life Writing Class into MU’s program aimed at providing enriching opportunities for adult learners, especially those wishing to preserve their own family and workplace stories in print,” Sheets said. “In addition, we are excited to realize that many of these works will achieve a wider readership and be acquired by libraries and sold on Amazon and in bookstores.”

Award-winning books crafted in part during past sessions of the class include “Father’s Troubles,” a novel by Carter Taylor Seaton, and “Rough Lumber,” a memoir by Justine Felix Rutherford.

Other works that notched impressive sales records at Tamarack, in bookstores, and in other venues are “John’s Little Acre,” by retired Cabell county art teacher Sylvia Thompson; “A River of Memories: An Appalachian Boyhood,” by David Lee Thompson; and “The Life Writing Class,” a collection edited by Grace.

Some writing is done right in class. Otherwise, it is done at home, or wherever, between classes. Sessions blend writing tips, coaching, visits from published authors, discussion of techniques of outlining and narration, and peer critiquing.

Grace himself is a six-times-published author or coauthor, and a veteran journalist and book editor. He holds a bachelor’s in history from Loyola University (Chicago), an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Italian/medieval studies from UNC-Chapel Hill. He writes a weekly editorial-page column for The Herald-Dispatch.

Enrollment in this class is limited to 16. The fee for the class is $205, payable to Marshall University. To enroll or request further information, please contact Sheets by e-mail at appell1@marshall.edu.