Hilary Mantel says: You come to this place, mid-life. You don’t know how you got here, but suddenly you’re staring fifty (sixty, seventy, eighty!) in the face. I am writing to take charge of my childhood and childlessness, she declares in her only memoir Giving up the Ghost.  

A memoir requires a central condition – an anchor. Her childlessness, this was the condition that ran through Mantel’s life-story. Everything else orbited around this condition. At these memoir classes you will explore your condition, your anchor. Whether it be parentlessness/parent-dogged, hero on your shoulder/shadow on your shoulder, loss/gain, hoarding/profligacy; addiction /fasting, yearning/contentment; fitness/gone to the dogs: your anchor – your memoir. 

Audience: those practiced in that they have already written a quantity of work (fiction, memoir, essay, poetry) either published or unpublished. Please note, this is a course sign-up, participants must be available to attend ALL dates listed - 24 January, 7 February, 21 February, 6 March, 20 March, 3 April.

To book, email dlrlexiconlib@dlrcoco.ie or Tel (01) 280 1147

Note: we also have a self-led LexIcon writers’ group that meets every fortnight 11am-1.00pm in dlr LexIcon. New members welcome.