The Ties That Bind

On Saturday, April 11, from 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Rachel and Janet Reynolds will run the workshop, The Ties That Bind: (Re)Writing Our Family Stories, at the Storyteller’s Cottage. The workshop costs $150, and spots can be reserved here: https://www.storytellerscottage.com/bookings-checkout/the-ties-that-bind-family-stories

Families are the stuff of legend, and every family (blood, chosen, or otherwise) has stories that are told over and over again, be it the origin of a pie recipe or the tale of how people met. The thing about stories, though, is that no two people tell them the same way. Sometimes it’s a matter of different details coming to the fore, but sometimes people have completely disparate senses of what actually happened. In this workshop, participants are invited to take an intergenerational approach to storytelling, working with family members to unpack shared stories and writing through this messy tangle together in search of a multilayered truth.

As experienced writers and teachers who are also related, Janet and Rachel will offer writing prompts and strategies for tackling family stories, as well as a safe space to explore the stories we tell ourselves and others. Participants will get constructive feedback on their writing and come away with a better sense of how to craft their story and improve their writing.

Participants can come alone or bring a family member (age 16+). They will learn to unpack family stories together and apart. Students will be given an assignment before class begins.

Rachel Reynolds teaches 7th grade English at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA and runs the middle school creative writing club. Before moving to Philadelphia, she served as director of the (In)Visible Memoirs Project, a statewide community-based writing workshop program in California. She has also worked as a literature learning guide editor for Shmoop, an educational website, and as the daily news editor for Kicker, a start-up designed to engage young people in current events. Her creative work and reporting have appeared with VICE, Liminalities, the Nervous Breakdown, Duende, and more. She holds a degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and has studied with Lidia Yuknavitch and Rae Gouirand.

Janet Reynolds is an award-winning journalist and editor who also teaches a writing class to adults with mental health issues. Called Write On!, the class helps students better understand how to use writing as a tool on their mental health journey. A writer and editor with deep roots in alternative journalism, and arts and culture magazines, Janet's work has appeared in print and online in local, regional and national publications. Janet believes in the transformational power of storytelling and has built her career around harnessing this power -- for herself, for communities, for companies.

The Storyteller’s Cottage is located in a vintage Victorian house in the center of historic Simsbury, CT, and hosts all manner of immersive literary events throughout the year, including Agatha Christie inspired live murder mystery parties, Great Gatsby themed Jazz Supper Clubs, fascinating close-up illusions at Fine Parlor Magic nights, a Literary Dinner Party series on select evenings at midnight, and more.

The Storyteller's Cottage is located at 750 Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury. Parking for The Storyteller's Cottage is free, and is available on the street in front of the building, and in the Fiddler's Green parking lot on Wilcox Street (behind the house). For more information, please call 860-877-6099 or visit www.StorytellersCottage.com.