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When:	March 6, 2012
Where:	1501 Broadway, Ste 403, New York, NY
What:	Writing About Your Mother and/or Father
In-person Admission:	$10 non-members, cash or check at the door; $0.00 for ASJA members with RSVP to asjaoffice -at- asja.org
Live web cast admission:	No fee. Click here and check back right before the event for the live web cast. To join chat at this streaming site, you must register. Billing information can be left blank.

Speakers are:

• Susan J. Gordon, whose just-completed memoir, Because of Eva: Solving Mysteries in My Family's Past, deals in large part with this topic, and with her need to repair the severing of ties caused by marital breakups in her family
• Bob Brody, who has written essays about his mother, off and on, for more than 30 years, and more recently, about his father and mother-in-law as well. He also blogs at letterstomykids.org, where he has recorded similar recollections for his two children.
• The name of a third speaker (agent or editor) has not yet been determined.

Whether or not your parents were kind, loving, abusive or absent, they have had an enormous, life-long impact on your life. And ever since the first kid cried "Mommy!" or "Daddy!" we writers have been writing, or deliberately not writing about our parents. Some of the questions raised are:

• Is the need to find family greater among grown children of shattered families?
• How does a child of severe parental cruelty fulfill the Biblical commandment to Honor Your Father and Mother?
• What kinds of factors lead to the severing of family ties?
• How do we forgive (or try to forgive) those people who were supposed to be our protectors?
• To what extent are we, ourselves, prepared to share private facts and personal feelings about our parents with the public?
• What kinds of markets are open to writers for these kinds of stories?

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