Author Deno Trakas of Tryon will present a creative writing seminar titled “Writing Family History/Memoir”

on Tuesday, Feb. 19 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Mahler Room at Tryon Fine Arts Center.

Trakas will lead a lively discussion and offer useful tips covering topics including: how to collect and select relevant material, how to organize the material, how to bring people to life on the page, how provide historical context how to hang the family’s dirty laundry.

Deno Trakas is the Hoy Professor of American Literature and the Chair of the English Department at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.  In addition to his book “Because Memory Isn’t Eternal: A Story of Greeks in Upstate South Carolina,” a family history, he has published fiction, poetry, and essays in many magazines and anthologies. Holocene Press published two of his poetry chapbooks, “The Shuffle of Wings” and “human and puny.” He’s won five South Carolina Fiction Project prizes and an Individual Artist Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Tryon Fine Arts Center joins forces with Hub City Writers Project of Spartanburg to present a series of three evening creative writing workshops in Tryon. Hub City Writers Project, founded in 1995, is dedicated to nurturing writers in all stages of the writing process through workshops, contests, and gatherings. Hub City Writers Project strives to build a community of writers across Upstate South Carolina and beyond. The organization has published more than 400 writers and 60 books. Tryon Fine Arts Center is a 44-year-old organization that provides opportunities and facilities for the entire Carolina Foothills community in order to advance experience and participation in the arts.

The workshops to be held at TFAC are part lecture, part exercise and will have a maximum of 20 students. All will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Mahler Room. For more information about the workshops and pricing, or to register, call 828-859-8322 or visit www.tryonarts.org .

– article submitted by Marianne Carruth