Thursday, May 15 from 5:30pm-7:30pm

FREE

Inspired by Chanel Miller's Brainstorm Series event at The Center and her memoir Know My Name?

Join author Katherine Standefer, Community Safety Network, and Teton County Library for a trauma writing workshop on May 15th in the Ordway Auditorium at Teton County Library.

In this two-hour class, Standefer will help writers engage the physiological hurdles, social barriers, craft challenges, and spiritual invitations of telling their stories of trauma. An expert in the space of trauma writing both as an author and as a teacher, Standefer has been teaching group trauma writing classes since 2016, when she noticed students in her illness- and sex-writing classes experiencing overwhelming nervous system responses as they tried to tell their stories. She attended the Arizona Trauma Institute (including its Certified Clinical Trauma Practitioner program) to see if she could figure out how to help writers tell powerful stories without "breaking themselves." Since 2018, she's been leading creative writing department trainings on trauma-informed pedagogies, giving talks at narrative medicine conferences on the topic, and working one-on-one with writers to help birth their trauma memoirs - all in addition to writing her own books that require moving through traumatic material.

Standefer's book Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life was selected as a Finalist for the Kirkus Prize, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Pick, a Common Read at Colorado College, featured on NPR's Fresh Air, the goop podcast, and was named one of the Best Books of Fall 2020 by Oprah Magazine.

The class will meet from 5:30-7:30PM on May 15th and will include future opportunities to present author's works if they are interested.

CSN advocates will be present to offer extra emotional support should anyone need it.