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Memoir relies on a fine balance between what the narrator is observing and how they are reflecting on that observation. This is especially true in KEY scenes, when we must be sure to both situate the reader in what's happening externally as well as internally. In this one-day generative workshop, we'll build an important scene layer by layer, working together to find balance between external and internal reflections. Reading examples from established writers and identifying their techniques, we'll figure out how to write the kinds of scenes that not only get at what we're really trying to say, but point outward to larger truths. Through specific lessons and then generative writing time, we'll work together in this day-long workshop to not only build a scene you'll be excited to take back to your larger project, but also give you tools for future scenes. Please bring your own lunch; we'll take a break midway through the day.

TESSA FONTAINE is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, A New York Times Editors' Choice; A Southern Living Best Book of 2018; An Amazon Editors' Best Book of 2018; A Refinery29 Best Book of 2018; A New York Post Most Unforgettable Book of 2018. Tessa spent the 2013 season performing with the last American traveling circus sideshow, the World of Wonders. An essay about the sideshow won the 2016 AWP Intro Award in Nonfiction. Her writing can be found in Outside online, The New York Times, Glamour, The Believer, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, The Normal School, Seneca Review, DIAGRAM, New Orleans Review, and more. She won a Tin House residency to work on her novel, Red Grove, published by FSG in 2024.