A few years ago, I decided I needed another degree and entered the MFA in Creative Writing program at Murray State University. I decided to study nonfiction since most of what I already wrote – magazine articles and essays – was nonfiction, and I figured my imagination wasn’t good enough to write fiction. I also thought that travel writing sounded delightful since I loved travel and had a number of stories I could tell about my adventures. My mentors at Murray had other ideas, however, and I found myself writing more memoir than travel.

While I really didn’t mind writing memoir, I was, at times, at a loss as to the subject of my stories.  Midway through my second semester, I happened upon the Thich Nhat Than quote that introduces this page. I started to think about my grandparents and the sacrifices they made coming to this country so their children and grandchildren would have a better life. Of course, my grandparents were just four of the

millions of immigrants—Italians,

Irish, Slovak, Spanish, Portuguese,

Welsh, French, and all the others—

whohelped make our United States of

America what it is today.  Without

them, without the courage that they

showed in traveling to this unknown

land, without the backbreaking labor

that they performed for most of their lives,

without their sacrifices, we would not have

the freedoms and the comforts that we

have today.

While doing research for that particular essay, I also realized that, unfortunately, most of our ancestors’ stories are being lost. In this digital age of instant news and gratification, we tend to forget the struggles and way of life from years ago. Even in our own lifetimes, we've lived through and seen sweeping changes in history, culture, art, education and technology as well as in our personal lives.  I knew that I could not let those stories die.

I founded The Las Vegas Memoir Project in order to teach people to record and tell their stories. Over 11 years, I taught people in a variety of venues throughout the LV valley. Now a resident of Palm Harbor, Florida, I have moved the project here.

 

If you are interested in taking classes, click the link below to contact me for our schedule or more information.