Creative Writing
Adult Class | FULL
In this workshop, you’ll explore memoir through short forms, ranging from the personal essay to the prose poem. With the help of prompts, examples, and occasional timed writing sessions, you’ll practice capturing memory, image, and reflection in concise and compelling ways. This class welcomes all levels, no previous experience is required. Just bring pen and paper (or a tablet) and a willingness to write.
What you will learn:
1) How to approach memoir through short forms such as essays, vignettes, and poems
2) Techniques for writing with focus, compression, and imagery
3) Strategies for transforming memory into vivid and resonant storytelling
4) How to use prompts and timed writing to spark ideas and overcome blocks
5) Ways to read and learn from contemporary short-form memoir examples
6) Confidence in developing your own voice and perspective on the page
Lesley Valdes
Lesley Valdes comes to poetry following a career as a print and broadcast arts journalist following posts as classical music critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer; chief critic of the San Jose Mercury News and WTMI, Temple Radio. She holds a degree in piano from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and MFA from the Program for Writers of Warren Wilson College. Awards from the National Arts Journalism Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Institute Ramon LLull of Barcelona, Spain, the New York State Writers Institute. The author of The Starlight Room (Finishing Line Press, 2025). Other poems can be found in Women’s Voices for Change, Janus, Inverness Poetry Journal, Glint, Shadowgraph and the Curator, among others. A native of Miami, FL, she lives in Philadelphia where she is also an instructor of piano, and guest speaker for the Chamber Music Society of Philadelphia.