Become an FWR Annual Member and join this mini-conference (and other classes and events) for 10% off! Member promo code must be applied at registration.

Writers of memoir and creative nonfiction, don’t miss this weekend MINI-WRITERS’ CONFERENCE designed just for you! Take classes from award-winning authors Lori Horvitz, Rebecca McClanahan & Jennifer McGaha, mingle with them at an “Ask Us Anything” happy hour, socialize with other writers and enjoy quiet writing time at the Flatiron Writers Room! Space is limited to 12 participants. 

If you’ve loved our day retreats, you’ll love this mini-conference!

Schedule: 

Saturday September 12, 2026:

9:30am: Doors open. Settle in, enjoy a coffee and pastry, and get to know your fellow participants.

10:00am-noon, Class #1: Making the Most of Things: How to Turn Artifacts into Stories with Jennifer McGaha.

Noon-1:30pm: Lunch break. Bring a brown bag lunch or get takeout from one of West Asheville’s nearby eateries, and join us on the FWR porch for social time.

1:30pm-2:30pm: Your choice:

—Join Heather Newton for a guided writing prompt at the FWR with an opportunity to share with others; or

—“An Exercise with Exercise” - we will supply you with a journal and you can take a self-guided walk down Haywood Road or the surrounding streets of vibrant West Asheville, utilizing what you see and hear as prompts to record your experiences. Grab a seat in a coffee shop where you can “accidentally overhear” a conversation, engage in a chat with a shop owner, detour down a residential side street and imagine a life lived in a house that captures your imagination, observe and record snatches of conversation of people passing, descriptions and character studies of pets ambling along with their humans…the possibilities for inspiration are endless! And we can give you a list of places you can pause for a coffee or cold drink and write down some of your thoughts. Come back early if you’d like and share along with the onsite group.

2:45pm-4:45pm, Class #2: Creating Real-Life Characters in Nonfiction w/Rebecca McClanahan.

4:45pm-5:45pm: “Ask Me Anything” happy hour. Join our faculty for wine and cheese and ask them anything about memoir, creative nonfiction and the writing life.

Sunday, September 13, 2026:

9:30am. Doors open, grab that coffee and pastry and find your seat.

10:00am-noon, Class #3: Flash Memoir w/Lori Horvitz.

Noon-3pm: We’ll wrap up at noon, but our space is yours for quiet writing time until 3pm! We have prompts, craft books, and a screenplay library to inspire you to get words on the page before you head home.  

Class Descriptions & Instructor Bios:

Making the Most of Things: How to Turn Artifacts into Stories with Jennifer McGaha

An old black-and-white photograph, an almost-forgotten letter, a journal, official documents and records, a favorite coffee mug, a well-loved cookbook, a special childhood toy, a sentimental piece of jewelry, a CD or album, the posters you had on your bedroom wall when you were a teenager, your father’s watch, your grandmother’s cast iron skillet, your softest sweater or most ragged jeans, a worn out hiking stick or trail map… All of these artifacts (and others!) can serve as entryways into our stories by unlocking memories and revealing something new or surprising. During our time together, we will look at a few examples of creative nonfiction/memoir pieces that emerge from writing about artifacts. Then, considering our own artifacts, we will dig deeper and deeper into the stories behind them through generative writing activities. Finally, we will share our responses in an informal workshop designed to give you suggestions for developing your work. Feel free to bring a small artifact or photograph of an artifact to refer to as we are writing.   

Jennifer McGaha is the author of three works of creative nonfiction including The Joy Document, a collection of fifty essays celebrating midlife, Flat Broke with Two Goats, a 2018 OverDrive Big Library Read, and Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out, a Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award finalist. Her work has also appeared in many magazines and literary journals. An experienced workshop facilitator and writing coach, Jennifer has mentored other writers for over two decades, and she has been a featured reader, speaker, and moderator for literary events at public libraries, bookstores, writing programs, and other venues across the country. An Appalachian native, Jennifer lives in a wooded North Carolina hollow with her husband, two cats, four unruly dogs, seven relatively tame dairy goats, and an ever-changing number of chickens.

Creating Real-Life Characters in Nonfiction w/Rebecca McClanahan   

Part of what draws a reader into a nonfiction work is knowing that flesh-and-blood people exist behind the words. However, real-life characters don’t automatically spring to life on the page. How do memoirists, personal essayists, literary journalists, and other nonfiction writers work with factual material to create fully developed, three-dimensional characters? In this class, we will look closely at a few literary examples, complete in-class writing prompts, and discuss ways to incorporate character-building elements into our own nonfiction works.

Rebecca McClanahan is the author of twelve books, most recently Light Falls on Everything: A Daughter's Memoir of Caregiving, Grief, and Possibility and In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays. Her poetry, nonfiction, and fiction have appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, The Sun. Recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, the Wood Prize from Poetry, and the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction, she has also received a MacDowell Colony fellowship, four literary fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, and the N.C. Governor's Award for Excellence in Education. She teaches in the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program.

Flash Memoir w/Lori Horvitz

Writing flash memoir (400 words or less) is a great way to practice the craft of writing memoir, a form that requires you to explore a deeper story within a limited number of words. It forces writers to be attentive to the most essential details in order to unearth a deeper meaning (a “flash” of insight) in their work. This two-hour session will include in-class writing and discussion of published texts.

Lori Horvitz’ first collection of memoir-essays, The Girls of Usually, won the 2016 Gold Medal IPPY Book Award in Autobiography/Memoir. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in a variety of journals including Hobart, South Dakota Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Hotel Amerika. Professor Emeritus of English at UNC Asheville, Horvitz has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, Cottages at Hedgebrook, VCCA, Ragdale, Blue Mountain Center, and Brush Creek. She holds a Ph.D. in English from SUNY Albany, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. In a starred review from Kirkus, the critic calls Lori’s latest book, Collect Call to My Mother: Essays on Love, Grief, and Getting a Good Night’s Sleep: “A scintillating collection, full of subtle wit and passionate yearning.