Each year during The Family HistoryWriting Challenge, I try to bring participants advice from experts in the
field. Authors who know the challenges that are unique to family
historians. I attempt to seek out writers who bring a variety of experience and
this year is no exception. Please enjoy a
look at our line-up guest authors for this year's challenge. I’m also sharing with each writer's chosen topic for this year. I hope you'll join us in the challenge.
1. Jean-François de Buren
is new to our challenge. He is a passionate family historian who published his
first family history in the fall of 2013. Jean-François is bringing his thoughts and
lessons learned in publishing his great-grandfather’s letters, A Voyage Across the Americas - The Journey of Henri de Büren
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Jean-Francois de Buren. Designer,
writer, storyteller, historian, and aspiring filmmaker, Jean-François de Buren
has been passionate about his family history for as long as he can remember.
Over the past 10 years he has actively worked on the story of his Swiss,
Argentine & American roots. He is an associate director of market
development for KPMG, as well as an advisory board member for the Museum of the
Swiss Abroad, in Geneva. Late last year he published the adaptation of his
ancestor’s journals “A Voyage Across the Americas - The Journey of Henri de Büren" which traces a two-year expedition through the New World of the 1850s.
Jean-François grew up in Northern California and is the father of two amazing
girls.
" which traces a two-year expedition through the New World of the 1850s.
Jean-François grew up in Northern California and is the father of two amazing
girls.
2. Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is back for her third year with us
and it is always a pleasure to have her in the house. Sharon brings with her a vast knowledge of family
history writing. This year, Sharon is going to help us overcome the mistake
of writing your stories in the ever boring, this happened and
then that happened format.
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Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Certified Genealogist with an MFA in
Creative Nonfiction Writing. She is the author of eighteen books and hundreds
of articles, essays, columns, and reviews that have appeared in nearly every
major genealogical journal and publication. Some of her books include You Can Write Your Family History, Carmack’s
Guide to Copyright & Contracts: A Primer for Genealogists, Writers &
Researchers, and Your Guide to
Cemetery Research.
Sharon’s
work has also appeared in numerous literary publications: Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Steinbeck Review, Portland Review, Hippocampus Magazine
(where her essay, “Switched
at Midlife” won “Most Memorable” and was one of ten essays
selected for the Best of Hippocampus,
May 2013), and Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art (where
her essay received Honorable Mention in the annual Creative Nonfiction
Contest). Sharon’s essays have also been finalists in contests for the Bellingham Review’s Annie Dillard
Award for Creative Nonfiction and in Creative
Nonfiction’s True Crime contest, and for publication in River Teeth and Calyx.
Sharon
teaches graduate courses in Creative Nonfiction Writing for Southern New
Hampshire University’s MA
in English and Creative Writing Program. She is also part of the adjunct
English faculty for Ashford University, and she teaches personal essay and
memoir writing online for Writer’s Digest University.
Additionally, for Family Tree University,
she teaches Irish genealogical research, and for Salt Lake Community College’s
online Certificate in Genealogy
program, she teaches the Immigrant Origins course and a new course that will
debut this summer, Genealogy and Family History Writing.
She can be
reached through her website, www.NonfictionHelp.com.
3. Julie
Cahill Tarr is a very dominant presence in our genealogy online community. Julie
brings with her a wonderful understanding of the challenges family historians
face in writing. She has inside knowledge of family history writing contests,
and their ability to help a new writer gain confidence. She will be sharing her
knowledge of writing contests with us.
Julie Cahill Tarr. Genealogy has been a passion of
Julie's for several years and she has been a professional writer for as long as
she can remember. Helping people write their family stories is a perfect blend
of both passions. She provides writing, editing, and design services to assist
other genealogists in telling their family stories. Julie is currently
the Quarterly Editor and Education Committee Chair for the Illinois State
Genealogical Society. You can follow Julie on her genealogy blog, Julie’s Genealogy & History Hub,
at http://genealogy.julietarr.com/blog.
4. Lisa
Alzo returns for her third year to the challenge. An ever present voice in our
writing community, Lisa brings an infinite amount of experience in an always
easy to understand manner. Hot off the 2014 Rootstech conference, she will be helping us stay the course when the excitement has diminished and overcoming the always ominous
writer’s block.
Lisa Alzo, M.F.A. currently resides in Ithaca, New
York. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from West Virginia
Wesleyan College in 1987 and Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1997.Lisa began writing creatively in the fourth
grade with an assignment entitled, “All About Me,” and went on to win
several English/Writing Awards throughout high school and college.
Lisa has published articles in Ancestry Magazine, Discovering Family History,
Family Chronicle, Family Tree Magazine, Genealogical Computing, Reunions
Magazine, NGSNews Magazine, Western Pennsylvania History Magazine, FEEFHS
Journal and Rocenka: Journal of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society
International, The Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly. An avid
genealogist for 22 years, Lisa currently teaches online genealogy course for
Family Tree University and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. She
is the recipient of the 2002 Mary Zirin Prize given by the Association for
Women in Slavic Studies to recognize the achievements of independent
scholars, and is a frequent speaker for national conferences, genealogical and
historical societies. You can find this busy writer at her website Lisa
Alzo and The
Accidental Genealogist.
5. Biff
Barnes returns with his expertise in the family history publishing field he has
seen more than his share of family history books. He knows what works. Biff
will be broaching the topic many of you wonder about, how to write a family
history when you can’t know all the facts.
Biff Barnes is a writer,
educator, and historian who has published extensively about San Francisco. He
was a William Robertson Coe Fellow in American History at Stanford University.
His experience with historical research, oral history, and academic writing is
invaluable to family history authors as they plan and organize their books.
Biff Barnes is part of the Stories
To Tell team of editors and
book designers who help authors to create memoirs and family history books.
They have worked with hundreds of authors to develop their fiction,
non-fiction, and creative non-fiction books. As an editor, he helps to plan the
book's content, edits text and images, and design a professional, unique book
for his clients. Biff offers great writing advice in his Stories
to Tell Blog
6. Linda
Gartz returns to the challenge for her second year. She's currently in the editing stages of her own memoir/family history, and I anxiously await its publication. Linda has managed an incredible amount of family history research in preparation of her first draft. She will be sharing with us her lessons learned in acquiring and
striving for that first draft.
Linda
Gartz is an author and award-winning television documentary producer and writer.
She’s
been digging through more than a century of family letters, diaries, and
artifacts, and has shared discoveries on her blog, Family Archaeologist, which can be found at
her website, lindagartz.com.
Her second blog, Letters of a World War II Airman, shares
original letters to and from her uncle, Frank Ebner Gartz, from 1943-1945,
tracing the course of WWII, life on the home front, and the evolution of a
neighborhood kid into seasoned airman. Letters are posted on or near the 70th
anniversary of the date they were written. You can find the earliest letters on
her website, but now all are posted at ChicagoNow, a compendium
of Chicago bloggers on wide-ranging topics.
She’s
working on a memoir/family history of growing up in her family’s sprawling
rooming house on Chicago’s West Side and the impact of wacky tenants, a
psychotic grandmother, her traveling Dad’s long absences, and the racial
upheavals of the 1960s on her parents’ love and livelihood.
Her
prose has been published in national and local magazines, newspapers, and
literary journals, including Heartlands––A
Magazine of Midwest Life and Art, The Chicago
Tribune’s Perspective (cover essay), MotorHome Magazine (travel), Bird
Watcher's Digest, ChicagoLand Gardening, The Evanston Review, the Evanston
RoundTable, and The Austin Weekly News. Online essays have
appeared on Persimmon Tree, Rose and Thorn Online Journal, and Extracts:
Daily Dose of Lit.
If you wish to have the pleasure of learning from these writers please join us in the challenge. Their articles will arrive in your Daily Dose newsletter throughout the month of February. Along with our guest author's contributions, a few of many posts coming your way during the month of February will include:
1. How to Find the Beginning of Your Story
2. Building Your Ancestors World
3. Creating Authentic Ancestors
5. Recreation
6. Show and Tell
7. Revision is Writing
And many more!
I hope you’ll join us in The Family History Writing Challenge.
