** PLEASE NOTE THE LOCATION OF THIS WORKSHOP IS HURSTBRIDGE UNITING CHURCH, NOT HURSTBRIDGE PRIMARY SCHOOL, DUE TO THE ELECTION! **

To memoir or not to Memoir? will take people into the heart of storytelling. Memoir is the ultimate form of sharing your story, understanding who you are, and forming connections with readers and neighbours and strangers. But why do we need/ want to tell our stories? We will explore this and more in this practical memoir writing workshop, facilitated by local writers, Sandy Jeffs and Sabi Buehler.

Sandy Jeffs OAM was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1976 when it was considered something from which you could not recover. In the 1980s, she was among the first wave of people who started speaking publicly about living with a mental illness. Much of her writing has been about her struggle with schizophrenia. Sandy has published 8 volumes of poetry and her memoir Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness that was republished March 2024. Sandy co-authored with Margaret Leggatt, Out of the Madhouse: From Asylums to Caring Community? that won the oral history prize at the 2020 Victorian Community History Awards. Her most recent books are: The Poetics of a Plague: A Haiku Diary, about the 2020-21 COVID-19 Pandemic published in 2021 and The Birds of Eltham with photographer Tony Robinson published in 2022.

Sabi Buehler is a retired teacher of both children and adults. Since retirement she was instrumental in starting the Nillumbik U3A and has written two books, A Life in Two Suitcases and Slaying Dragons All on my Own.

Please bring a pen and notebook to the workshop.

**Please note, if there is an election that will be held at the school on this date we may need to change the location to Allwood Neighbourhood House Art Space, but we will notify all attendees.**