*Covid-19 Update: This winter, the Library’s programs will continue to meet virtually, via Zoom. Please check eLibris or our programs calendar for updates and line-up. This event is limited to Library members and requires advance reservation.

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The Past is Never Dead- The Passage of Time and the Persistence of Memory

In this writing workshop with author Mamta Chaudhry, we’ll focus on the passage of time and the persistence of memory. Clocks and calendars in fiction, poetry, and memoir don’t always keep step with the chronology of real life; instead of marching relentlessly forward, time often loops back  on itself, blurring the boundaries between past and present. We’ll explore strategies  to structure and layer time to make your writing richer and deeper.

Open to all, from beginners to experienced writers, and to all genres, the workshop will feature a combination of a lecture-style presentation, writing prompts/free-writes, sharing of writing samples written during free-writes, and a Q&A.

Mamta Chaudhry is the author of a novel, Haunting Paris, praised as “elegantly wrought” by The New York Times Book Review, “extraordinarily beautiful” by Bonjour Paris, and “a heart-wrenching love letter to Paris” by Publishers Weekly. Marilynne Robinson called “this fine first novel . . . a small parable, pondering the nature of civilization itself,” and Russell Banks described it as “powerful and moving . . . with a heartbreaking, profoundly adult love story at its center.”

She lives with her husband in Coral Gables, Florida. They spend part of each year in India and in France. Much of her professional career was in television and classical radio at stations in Calcutta, Gainesville, Dallas, and Miami. Mamta has studied with Marilynne Robinson and has also taught literature and creative writing at the University of Miami. Her early fiction, poetry, and feature articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in the States and in India. She is currently working on a second novel.