Explore memoir-writing from start to finish as a wild, creative and body-led practice. Learn practical somatic techniques to tell your real, raw stories — with guidance from 36 skilled memoirists and writing teachers.
2025 PROGRAM WORKSHOP BUNDLE
for current and curious memoir-writers
Explore memoir-writing and creative non-fiction writing techniques
that help you stop feeling stuck — and finally start, shape, and share your memoir
Learn how to write your life stories in a way that feels creative, honest and supportive, with sessions on outlining, overcoming writer’s block, craft, revision, promotion and more.
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Discover various forms of memoir-writing and ways to write and revise your personal stories
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Tap into the wisdom of your body through writing (and discover how memoir-writing is connected to your healing)
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Finally get started (or unstuck from where you stopped) and write with delight and enthusiasm
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Discover ways to tell, share and promote your personal stories
Meet your Memoir-Writing Guides
This series invites you to write the stories that won’t leave you alone, and write them well.
Together, we explore the soil of our stories. The messy, charged places. The tangled middle. The beauty and ache of being alive.
Because your stories matter. Not just the hard ones — all of them.
Through 36 different presentations, these brilliant memoirists, writing teachers and somatic healers will guide you through outlining, revision, writer’s block, and the healing power of writing from your body.
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Outline Your Memoir Using Fairy Tale and Myth as Your Guide
Janelle Hardy, host and creator/teacher of transformational memoir-writing course, the Art of Personal Mythmaking
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Memoir Process Deep Dive: The Start to Finish Process of Writing your Memoir
Margo Steines (She/Her), Writer & Creative Coach
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Avoiding the Villain Edit: Writing the People in Your Life as Full Humans (Even If They Were Awful)
Sabrina Estudillo Butler (She/Her), Book Coach + Editor
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A Memoir in 36 Prompts: Writing Your Story One Scene at a Time
Mary Adkins (She/Her), Founder of The Book Incubator
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The Desire to Write -- On Sex, Story and Showing Skin without Shame
Rebecca Woolf, Essayist, Writing Teacher
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Writing What You Don't Know: Imagination, Recreation & the Ethics of Making Sh*t Up
Allison K Williams, Editor & Retreat Leader
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The Art of Graphic Memoir
Tom Hart, Graphic Memoirist; Director, Sequential Artists Workshop
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Writing Comedy and Vulnerability: How To Do Both By Doing Neither
Alex Dobrenko (He/Him), Writer + Comedian
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Writing Emotion In Memoir
Traci Skuce, Writing Mentor
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Your Body Is Your Life Story: Core Principles of Embodied Writing
Jeannine Ouellette (She/Her), Writer and Writing Teacher
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The Art of Seasoning: How to Craft Flavorful Sentences
Joy Sullivan (She/Her), Author & Educator
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Writing with Creative Intelligence: How Story Energy Bypasses Logic
Sarah Selecky (She/Her), Author and Master Writing Coach
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Your Fairy Tale, Your Story
Dr. Sara Cleto (She/Her) and Dr. Brittany Warman (She/Her), Founders of The Carterhaugh School and Folklorists
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Owning Your Story: A Survivor’s Guide to Self-Publishing
Kelsey Zazanis, Writer
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ADHD, Neurodivergence, and Unconventional Writing Strategies
Cathy Kirch (She/They), ADHD Writing Specialist
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Giving Our Body a Voice Through Poetry
Heidi Rose Robbins (She/Her), Poet, Astrologer, Teacher
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Write it Anyway: A Tarot-Led Writing Workshop for Tender Writers Who Feel Afraid to Begin
Giselle Vriesen (She/They), Author, Tarot Reader & Writing Teacher
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Shifting Resistance and Writer's Block Using Your Body (working with trauma and your nervous system)
Janelle Hardy, host, creator and teacher of transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking
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The Invitation of Pain: Navigating our Body Stories
Ali Emerald (She/Her), Chronic Illness Somatic Embodiment Coach
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Rebuild the Past, Reveal the Truth: Worldbuilding for Memoir Writers
Heather Davis (She/Her), Certified Book Coach & Podcaster
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Muscle Memory: Writing Memoir Through The Body
Mikala Jamison (She/Her), Cultural critic, Writer/Reporter
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How to Serialize Your Memoir on Substack
Mercedes O’Leary, Essayist, Poet, and Writing Teacher
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Writing Yourself as a Character: Fiction-Writing Techniques for Memoir
Daniel David Wallace, Writing Coach & Founder of the Character-First Story Approach
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What You Need to Know About Revision
Racquel Henry (She/Her), Writer, Editor, and Writing Coach
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Choosing the Right Narrative Structure for Your Memoir
Rhonda Douglas (She/Her), Writing Mentor, Host of The Resilient Writers Radio Show
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The Art of Auto-Ethnography: Exploring Culture, Subjectivity & Technology Through the Looking Glass
Treena Orchard (She/Her), Associate Professor & Author of Sticky Sexy Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps
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The Art of Chaos: A Memoir-Writing Journey of Healing and Transformation
Nicole Dolan (She/Her), Memoirist & Depth Psychologist — Helping Writers Transform Life into Story
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3 Character Arcs for Memoir
Megan Fuentes (She/Her), Story Coach
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Rest and Write: Reclaiming Your Inner Voice
Gursharn Rait (She/Her), Rest Mentor and Storyteller
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Breathing Through Chaos to Clarity
Lucie Forster, Transformation and Breathwork Specialist, CEO of VANA Breathwork App
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Invoking the Holy Witness: Writing Hard Truths in Memoir and Knowing What to Leave Out
Samantha Wallen (She/Her), Poet, Writing Guide, Book Coach
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The Orgasmic Writing Practice: A Sensual Method for Hitting Your Creative Sweet Spot Every Time You Write
Shawnrey Notto (She/Her), Sensual Embodiment & Creativity Coach
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Your Stories in Your Hands: Stress-Free Self-Publishing
Rachel Harrsion-Sund, Self-Publishing Strategist
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How to Find Places to Get Your Writing Published Using Chill Subs
Benjamin Davis (He/Him), Co-Founder of Chill Subs
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Talking About Yourself Publicly: Social Media and Marketing for Memoir-writers
Shelby Leigh, Bestselling Author and Marketing Teacher
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Micro Memoir: Publish Your Tiny True Stories
Nadine Kenney Johnstone, Author, Writing Coach, Retreat Host, Podcaster
As you can see from these thoughtful and wide-ranging presentations and workshops, this is not your average writing event.
It’s a uniquely curated experience designed to nourish, stretch and awaken your memoir-writing practice.
Join us for the Dirty Messy Alive: Embodied Memoir-Writing Workshop Series Replays to learn from 36 skilled (and kind!) memoirists and writing teachers, and explore how to write your real stories with craft, honesty and aliveness.
Inside Dirty Messy Alive you’ll explore the many options and forms memoir can take.
From body-deep truth to finely tuned craft, we’re not offering one way to write your story — we’re offering dozens.
So you can find the one that fits.
Meet your host
Hi! I’m Janelle Hardy.
I’m a writer, somatic healing practitioner and transformational memoir-writing teacher.
My writing path began in childhood. I had my first byline at 17, with a monthly column in the Yukon News about life as a Canadian exchange student in Japan.
My healing path began not long after — seeking relief from intense shyness, chronic fatigue, social isolation, jaw tension and relentless tummy trouble.
Eventually, I stopped trying to “push through” and started listening to my body. And it changed everything.
Now, I teach memoir-writing through the lens of the body, myth and memory — because writing and somatic healing together offer a kind of relief I didn’t know was possible. A kind of truth-telling that leaves you more whole, not less.
I’m the creator of The Art of Personal Mythmaking, my transformational memoir-writing course, and the host of annual events like this one, the Healing Through Writing Festival and the Stories from the Body Writing Challenge.
All of which is to say: you’re in very good hands with me :-)
I care deeply about the people I serve.
I trust this work. I trust the body. I trust the writing. And I trust the incredible lineup of skilled (and kind) memoirists and writing teachers joining us inside Dirty, Messy, Alive.
But most of all, I trust you. Your desire to tell the truth. To get raw. To get real.
To get dirty, messy, and alive.