How to get nonfiction write

Living through a powerful experience is one thing. Turning it into a story that matters to someone who wasn’t there is something else entirely.

Author Lauren Kessler will explore how writers make that leap when Willamette Writers Coast Chapter hosts the presentation “Writing Memoir and Nonfiction” at Newport Public Library this Saturday, Sept. 19.

Drawing from the creation of her most recent book, “Everything Changes Everything,” Kessler will examine the storytelling decisions that transformed a deeply personal experience into a narrative intended to resonate beyond her own life.

Rather than approaching memoir simply as confession or recollection, Kessler will focus on the medium as a series of deliberate choices that shape private experience into compelling literature. She will also explore some of the challenges that come with writing about real lives, including how to portray people we love without slipping into sentimentality and how to create vivid characters while remaining faithful to the people behind them.

Along the way, Kessler will consider the ethical questions faced by writers working with real experiences: what belongs in the story, what should remain private and what might need to be left out for artistic reasons.

The Willamette Writers Coast Chapter hosts a mix of events from September through June. Willamette Writers, the parent organization, is the largest writers association in Oregon and one of the largest in the nation.

Saturday's program begins at 2 pm at Newport Public Library, located at 35 NW Nye Street.

For more information, go to willamettewriters.org.