Discover the power of your own life stories in this welcoming and inspiring one-time workshop. Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned storyteller, you’ll explore personal memories and experiment with techniques to bring them to life on the page.

All levels of writers are welcome. This session will include a general introduction to memoir writing and some writing exercises. Please bring a notebook and pen.

Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is an award-winning author and poet of 14 books, including three memoirs. She often writes and speaks about writing for healing and transformation. She’s also a regular contributor to Psychology Today, The Good Men Project, Sixty and Me, Medium, and The Mindful Word. She’s lectured and taught writing workshops nationwide. Visit https://www.dianaraab.com

Join Mandy on November 11, 2026, at the Ojai Valley Women’s Club in Ojai for afternoon tea with acclaimed Belfast-born authors Jan Carson and Lucy Caldwell.

Mandy will speak with Jan and Lucy about their latest books, Few and Far Between and Devotions, respectively.

Jan Carson is the author of several short story collections and novels including Quickly, While They Still Have Horses; The Raptures; and The Fire Starters, winner of the EU Prize for Literature. She has won the Harper’s Bazaar short story competition and been shortlisted for many awards, including the BBC National Short Story Award, the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize, and the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year. Jan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and her writing has been translated into over a dozen languages, appeared in numerous journals, and been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio. She lives in Belfast.

Born in Belfast, Lucy Caldwell is the author of four novels, including These Days, four collections of short stories, most recently Devotions, several stage plays and radio dramas, and is the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories. Her numerous awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the George Devine Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Award (Canada & Europe), a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. In 2021 she won the BBC National Short Story Award with her story “All the People Were Mean and Bad” and in 2022 she was the recipient of the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2024 the Ulster Tatler chose her as its Woman of the Year.  A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a former Heaney Centre Fellow, she runs an in-demand masterclass series for the Faber Academy.

Event tickets are $85 and include afternoon tea, a copy of Few and Far Between and Devotions, an engaging conversation with Mandy, Jan, and Lucy, followed by a Q&A and book signing.

This lively, interactive, and incredibly practical workshop will equip you with everything you need to begin or continue your journey with the short story. Combining discussion, writing exercises, and teaching drawn from Jan’s own experience, participants can expect to explore all the components of the short story, including character development, plot, structure, voice, editing, and much more. Over the course of the session, they'll have a chance to develop and write their own short story, learn how to give and receive helpful editorial feedback on a work in progress, and consider the importance of reading in terms of developing writing practice. Jan will also offer hard learnt advice on the publishing process. This workshop is suitable for both beginner writers and those keen to reinvigorate their writing practice.