Memoirs • Fiction • Composition • Pop Culture • Film
“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths good theater.” Gail Godwin
Ann has taught writing, pop culture, and film studies in several venues, from school classrooms to courses at the University of California, San Diego, Extension, where she currently teaches fiction writing courses and workshops.
Memoir Writing Workshops
Every Wednesday morning, Ann runs five-week Memoir Writing Workshops in Rancho Bernardo, California. During the first five-week workshop, Ann helps writers, both novice and advanced, to outline their memoirs, beginning with those memories that live in the forefront of the mind, those stories that they tell whenever people gather and talk about their lives. As the course progresses, she helps the students dig deeper, to find those (sometimes painful) stories that dwell in the farther reaches of memory. At each class, students receive written insights into telling their stories and numerous prompts for when their own ideas begin to slacken and they think they have nothing more to say. Every class is different, recharging Ann’s energy and enthusiasm, making her more eager with each passing week to lasso in more people for the workshops. Each life is unique, and a record of that life is the greatest legacy a person can leave to family and loved ones.
“Ann’s Memoir Writing class has given me an inlet, an outlet, and a new purpose to my life in retirement. The prompts she provides, the constructive criticism she gives, and the enthusiasm with which she approaches each class have given me an opportunity to take a fresh look inward at my life, both past and present, an outlet in the wonderful world of writing, and a new purpose to my life. Do not miss an opportunity to experience the tutelage of this phenomenal woman of letters.” Anne Trevethan Birkhoff
Fiction Classes and Workshops
Writing isn’t simply the putting together of sentences. It is the stimulating of the five senses, plus memory, pulse, and imagination. Whether science fiction, western, crime, thriller, mystery, romance, or the occult ... all genres require expert crafting of plot, character, and story. Ann teaches creative writing, primarily in fiction. As a sideline, she works as literary consultant and editor for a number of published authors.
Student Comments on “Vile, Evil Villains” Course:
- “Ann is incredibly knowledgeable and has a great personality. Her critiques are done with tact, making even beginning writers feel comfortable.”
- “I got exactly what I was hoping for from this class. Ann teaches with an enjoyable, engaging style.”
- “Ann is a highly motivating and animated instructor.”
- “Ann is a true artist of her craft and not a blowhard.”
- “This was a great fun class. Ann is a great instructor.”
Student Comments on “Writing with the Senses” course:
- “Ann is an excellent instructor. This was an amazing experience.”
- “An extraordinarily knowledgeable and creative and caring instructor.”
- “Perhaps my best-ever class. An incredible joy.”
- “Excellent course. It helped me to improve my description writing in my scripts.”
- “The instructor was welcoming and non-threatening, especially to beginning writers.”
- “Ann’s enthusiasm is contagious.”
- “This was a quick intro that needs to be a semester class.”
Composition Classes
Grammar and punctuation are Ann’s strong suits. Grade school teachers emphasize the need to encourage children to write without the inhibition of proper spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, or grammar. All well and good. But by the time a child reaches Middle School, those inhibitions must be overcome if a person is to become a proficient writer. The reality is, however, that many people leave high school with a less-than-rudimentary understanding of the beauty and power of the English language. As a teacher, Ann attempts to open new horizons for her students, helping them to overcome the barriers that deter them from good writing skills. Her motto is: write like you speak, and then we’ll fix the small stuff.
Pop Culture Course
Before the advent of the printing press, common man typically knew of the world only through stories told by wandering minstrels and town criers. With the advent of print and the spread of literacy, the world opened to the common man. Today, light years beyond the Güttenberg press and other early technological innovations, the globe is smaller than it has ever been in the history of mankind. In this course, Ann teaches about the world before Güttenberg, from print to radio to newspapers to television and today, finally, to the Internet. Fortunately for her, the curriculum doesn’t need to change every quarter ... in an impossible bid to keep up with rampant advances, from the iPod to Twitter. Knowing that her students are living current Pop Culture, she helps them to see where that culture began.
Film History Course
Ann’s brain is a haven to the memory of supporting and B-movie actors, particularly those who lived prior to the 1980s. Mickey Shaughnessey, C. Aubrey Smith, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp -- these were the friends of her youth (granted, they were already old or dead by then, but they lived on in film). During college, when she was bored in class, Ann would list all then-45 of Gregory Peck’s movies by heart, writing backwards. Movies were her second reality. So, it was natural that she would thrive teaching film studies.
Current Classes
UCSD Extension: Beginning-writer workshop entitled Using the Five Senses in Your Writing. (July 2009)
UCSD Extension: Writer workshop entitled Vile, Evil Villains. (3 weeks, October 2009)
UCSD Extension: Writing class (5-week) entitled A Sense of Place. (February 2010)
UCSD Extension: Writer workshop entitled Vile, Evil Villains. (Extended to 5 weeks, May 2010)
UCSD Extension: Writers workshop entitled Overcoming Writers Block. (August 2010, 3 weeks)
UCSD Extension: Writers workshop entitled Creating Memorable Characters. (July 2010, 6 weeks)
Rancho Bernardo: Chapter by Chapter, a memoir-writing workshop. (5-week, ongoing)