Memoir Writing Program: January, 2023

Comedian and writer Carolyn Bennett  returns to Back Lane Studio with a course on memoir writing. 

Memoir Writing: On and Off the Record

Comedian and writer Carolyn Bennett, who has offered several programs at Back Lane Studios, will be back in January, 2023 with another writing program on Zoom followed by an exciting in-person reading of participants’ work at the studio.

Here are the details:

  • The program runs 8 weeks on Wednesday evenings from Jan. 18 to March 8.
  • On Zoom from 7:00 to 8:30pm.
  • In-person reading (with refreshments!) at Back Lane Studios, March 24!
  • Fee: $160 or Pay What You Can!

Everybody has a story to tell and in this eight-week program you’ll hone your story-telling techniques. A novelist, screenwriter, playwright and comedian, Carolyn will offer exercises that will have you mining your memories to create a portrait, an atmosphere, suspense or humour. You’ll share your work with fellow participants, and we hope some of your stories can be used for Back Lane Studio’s Mapping Our Memories project (we’re collecting “seniors’ ” memories and linking them to a digital map).

Please email us at ellen@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654 if you’re interested.

More about Carolyn:

Writer and comedian Carolyn Bennett cut her teeth performing at Yuk Yuks and hasn’t stopped bleeding since. Selected TV credits include This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC COMICS and Chilly Beach. Produced plays include Mixed Media (CBC Radio) Pure Convenience (CBC Radio), Runtkiller, The Short List, Canis Familiaris and Sick Kids Wanna Talk To You. She won the 2013 TIFF Studio Screenwriting Intensive Jury Prize for her feature comedy The Mac and Watson Springtime Reeferendum Show. She was part of the 2017 Thousand Islands Playhouse Playwrights’ Unit where she developed the play The Monarchists. She wrote, produced and performed in the solo show Double Down Helix in July 2018 at the Kingston Storefront Fringe Festival. Her debut novel Please Stand By was published in 2019 by Vancouver’s Now or Never Publishing in Fall 2019. Bennett co-produced and performed at Hirut Hoot, a monthly stand-up showcase in Toronto at Hirut Fine Ethiopian Cuisine, before decamping to Brockville from Toronto.

Day jobs have included a stint as a senior writer for government. Carolyn Bennett enjoys the perks of sharing the same name of a prominent federal cabinet minister.