The Oral History Manuscript: Writing from Oral History
Dates: Saturday, December 16 - Monday, December 18
Format: Online, via Zoom
Instructors: Suzanne Snider, Dao X. Tran, M.E. O’Brien, Eman Abdelhadi, Rae Garringer, Sara Sinclair
Participants: This workshop will be capped at 20 participants.
Schedule:
Day 1, 10 am to 6 pm
Day 2, 10 am to 6 pm (Panel 12 PM - 2 PM eastern)
Day 3, 10 am to 6 pm
The Oral History Manuscript: Writing from Oral History (I Am Sitting in a Room, Part II)
Oral history excels at complicating the narrative. How can we preserve and deliver these complex narratives when moving from speech to print? How can we make adequate space for our narrators’ voices and our own (authorial) voice? What does it mean to write in first person with someone else’s words? What is an oral history book?
This workshop is oriented toward writers, scholars and/or oral historians looking to address some of these questions while creating long form work rooted in oral histories/oral history collections. The workshop begins with a refresher of oral history values and characteristics followed by responsive writing exercises/lab-time and a survey of oral history-centered literature (monologues, oral narratives, oral tone poetry). As part of this focused workshop, OHSS will host a panel with Voice of Witness Editorial Director Dao Tran and authors Rae Garringer (Country Queers), Sara Sinclair (How We Go Home), M.E. O’Brien (Everything for Everyone) and Eman Abdelhadi (Everything for Everyone) to discuss the narrative and ethical challenges of structuring books from/with oral histories.
Dao will join the workshop group for a second session, workshopping questions and ideas related to participants’ works-in-progress.
The workshop is structured to help participants more explicitly identify their aesthetic and ethical approaches in a supportive setting and to support literary innovation.
Participants may be at any phase of their projects, whether they have something in progress or thinking about starting a project.
Note: *Participants working on long form articles, plays, or other forms may join, as well, though we will frame most of our discussions around book-length manuscripts.
The above button will take you to the standard application form, if you would like to register at the Hand Up, Independent, or Institutional rate.
PLEASE NOTE: FELLOWSHIPS ARE NOW FULL. To join the waitlist for a fellowship, please fill out the form below.
The Zoom link for this workshop will be sent out one week before the workshop, and again the day of the workshop.
Tuition Fee Structure
Thank you for reviewing our tiered fee structure, which reconciles our wish to make the training increasingly accessible with our need to cover staff labor and the rising costs of our materials. Please read the descriptions below and be in touch (info@oralhistorysummerschool.com) if you would like support selecting your tuition tier.
We are committed to subsidizing several seats at the table. We are an independent school without any institutional or additional funding outside of tuition. Please give what you can so we can keep funds circulating and promote diverse participation while paying our staff a living wage.
Fellowship: $0, 2 participants: These spaces are reserved as part of an equity initiative to support more BIPOC participation and historically marginalized voices at the table and in the field. If you are eligible based on these criteria and cannot attend at the standard tuition rate, please select this option.
Hand Up: $600, 4 participants: A limited number of $600 spaces have been reserved for participants who work in under-resourced economies (education, social work, etc) and need a hand-up to participate at this time.
Independent/Subsidized: $750, unlimited (up to 20 total participants): This is for participants without institutional support. (If you are at a salaried job, employed full-time or finance vacations and/or dining out, we ask you to consider our Standard/Institutional rate, below.)
Standard/Institutional Rate: $900, unlimited (up to 20 total participants)
Tuition covers instruction, e-reader, OHSS workbook (digital) and other forms/resources, plus access to our alumni newsletter/network.
Participants will have the option to purchase a book bundle from Haymarket Books, curated by OHSS and Dao Tran. A link to purchase will be shared with all participants, along with a 50% discount code generously offered by Haymarket Books, to honor your participation in this workshop. Those purchasing a book bundle will also receive an OHSS tote bag.
Note: Due to small class size, OHSS is unable to provide refunds. Tuition is non-refundable or transferable for withdrawal or cancellation.
Our Instructors:
DAO X. TRAN
M.E. O’Brien