Class Title: Holiday Tales: Telling Your Holiday Stories through Poetry Instructor: Lorraine Mejia-Green Class Term: We are not accepting any more enrollments for Lorraine's class; the class has started. Synopsis As the holidays approach, come be inspired to write your holiday stories through the wonderful medium of poetry! Class Description The holiday season is once again upon us. For so many of us the holidays bring many memories: some of them wonderful, nostalgic holiday memories; some of them sad or painful. Why not record these important moments for yourself and/or future generations. Perhaps you can give them as a holiday gift this year. Using "holiday poems" from master poets throughout the ages, Lorraine Mejia-Green will help inspire you to write poems of your own. All writing levels—and genres—embraced! For you prose writers out there, remember that poetry doesn't need to rhyme, and your prose may already be poetry in disguise! At the end of the class, students will be able to confidently write their own holiday stories through poetry; record their holiday stories; leave the class with more ideas to continue their writing! Instructor will use a Yahoo group and personal email (available to students who want only her to comment on work written). Poems used in class will be found online. Outline Unit 1: Introduction & Childhood Holiday Stories—What childhood holiday memories do you have? What holiday traditions shaped you? We'll begin by digging back into childhood to write poems about our earliest holiday stories. Unit 2: Adult Holiday Stories—What are your most important adult holiday memories? What traditions did you choose? We'll write poems based on these important stories, whether joyful or filled with the ups and downs of life. Unit 3: Holiday Stories today—What do the holidays mean to you today? What wisdom and traditions do you bring to your holidays? Inspired by writing exercises and model poems, we'll record these present holiday stories with beautiful poems. Student Skills, Equipment, and Time Required All writing levels welcome. Basic Internet and computer skills needed. Ability to navigate a Yahoo group and send emails. Students will spend 2-5 hours per week (students can, of course, put in more hours, as reading and writing poetry is wonderful!). Tuition/Fees for this course SCN members: $96. Non-SCN members: $120. Instructor Bio Born in Minnesota to a Mexican Mother and German American father, Lorraine Mejia-Green became a marathon runner, flamenco dancer, artist, editor, librarian, educator, poet, author, and storyteller. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a MLS in Youth Librarianship. Lorraine Mejia-Green's poems have won several awards, and have appeared in anthologies such as Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets of the Midwest and in literary journals including Willow Springs, Inkwell, and Calyx. She has taught poetry classes to children, teens, and adults all around the country. Visit her website. Praise for Lorraine's Classes I learned new ways of looking at my writing style of poetry. Lorraine Mejia-Green's class was very helpful with new ideas. —Jamuna A., Lorraine Mejia-Green's class on poetry writing is an excellent motivator to studying poems and getting your own poetry written. I found her comments useful and when implemented they made my poems much better. Lorraine is very accessible, you can ask her anything and she is quick to answer you via email. She is open to anything you want to talk about. It's like having a good friend see you along your writing journey. I'm sure I will be in contact with her after the course. —Renee C., Lorraine Mejia-Green's attentive red-line reviews were the reins gently leading us to confidence and individual voice, all the while honing our work. —Jazz J., Austin TX Lorraine Mejia-Green was wonderful—teacher, supporter, encourager, truthful, helpful—it is a very rich course and I hope she teaches another. —Mary S., Medford NY Due to a prior negative experience writing poetry, I enrolled in this course with a degree of fear. I did not think I could write poetry, but I wanted to learn the process so maybe someday I could try to write poetry. Lorraine Mejia-Green made me feel like my contributions really were poetry and quite acceptable. I can't tell you what this did for my self-esteem. I learned to love reading poetry and writing it also. I started the class feeling like a dunce and ended it feeling like a poet. Thank you, Lorraine. This has been the best on-line StoryCircle course yet!! —Janice K., Austin TX Appreciated the richness of the class, the poetry readings of other poets and student and Lorraine Mejia-Green's feedback. —Katharine A., Makawao HI This was a great class. I am glad that you offer a poetry class now. It had been a long time since I had written poetry. This class made me realize that I can still write. Lorraine Mejia-Green prepared excellent hand outs and an organized syllabus. She included a great variety of poets with links to specific poems and collections. —Rachel O., Richardson TX Lorraine Mejia-Green is a wonderful instructor! —Aranga F., Three Rivers CA What a gifted teacher! I learned so much with Lorraine Mejia-Green and the other women in my group! The feedback and direction were stellar! I'm signing up for the next class! —Carol Z., St. Louis MO Lorraine Mejia-Green supported our learning in this class at a very high level. She reinforced what was working in our writing and had clear suggestions to improve our poems, line-by-line. Several of us in this class will be signing up for Lorraine's next online course. What could be a better endorsement? —Ann M., Cedar Park TX Lorraine Mejia-Green is positive without being just a cheerleader. Fantastic class. —Kim C., Edmond OK