Listening to Your Life: A Weekend of Memoir
Led by Raisa Tolchinsky
In this weekend workshop, we’ll explore how lived experience becomes a narrative through generative writing, close reading, and thoughtful conversation. Together we’ll ask: What does it mean to remember? What is the relationship between memory and truth? How do we shape lived experience into story? Through guided writing exercises and readings from contemporary memoirists and poets, you’ll experiment with new ways of approaching your own stories, finding language for the questions you’ve carried and the ones you are just beginning to ask. We’ll write toward curiosity rather than certainty, discovering how attention itself can become a creative practice. Writers of all levels are encouraged to join; no previous experience is necessary. Whether you’re beginning a memoir, deepening an ongoing project, or seeking a new way to engage your life through writing, this workshop offers a welcoming space to explore.
Please click here for a brief overview & introduction from the Instructor, Supply List and Workshop Schedule.
Please click here for a brief overview & introduction from the Instructor, Supply List and Workshop Schedule.
Program Details
Start Date:
End Date:
Categories:
Ghost Ranch Program
Writing Literature Journaling
Date & Time Details:
3:00 pm Check in
10:00 am Check out
10:00 am Check out
Location:
Ghost Ranch
Address:
280 Private Drive 1708, Abiquiu, NM, USA
Contact:
Programs
programs@ghostranch.org
505-685-1000
Email Us About Program
About the Leader
Raisa Tolchinsky
Raisa Tolchinsky is the poet-in-residence at Ghost Ranch for the 2026–2027 year, where she is developing new work rooted in landscape, myth, and the contemplative life of the high desert. She is the author of Glass Jaw (Persea Books, 2024), winner of the 2023 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, a collection that explores the world of women’s boxing. Raisa holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia and a Master of Religion from Harvard Divinity School, where she focused on writing as a form of chaplaincy. Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and other journals. Previously, she served as the 2022–2023 George Bennett Writer-in-Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy and taught as a visiting faculty member at Indiana University. She is a partner, daughter, sister, friend– an Italian speaker, lover of long walks and cold swims, and a forever student.