Steph Auteri, a two-year attendee of Hippocampus, will be running a flash session titled, “How to Pump Out an Epic Number of Story Ideas in One Sitting.” We’re excited to hear her speak! In the meantime, we asked her a few questions about her upcoming participation in our writing conference.
Hippocampus: What are you most excited to share during your session?
SA: The exercise I’ll be teaching during my flash session is one I like to teach my smaller classes in worksheet form, because there’s nothing like a good worksheet! More than just simple idea generation, writers learn that one good topic or one good question or one announcement can be spun out into many, many stories.
Why do you love true stories?
The topics I focus on are ones I feel I’ve been writing and rehashing and writing again for the majority of my adult life. First as a tool of catharsis, a means of working out my personal issues on the page, then as a means of connecting with others who had experienced similar things, so I don’t have to feel so alone. Finally, they serve as a means of shattering silence around issues many people feel uncomfortable giving voice to. I believe it is possible to do all these things with fiction, but nonfiction is where I, personally, have been able to shine, and what I connect to the most.
Share a fun fact with us—something attendees may be surprised to know:
Way back when I was choosing a college major, it was a battle between writing and vocal performance. I ended up studying writing, but that hasn’t stopped me from incorporating singing into my life. At one point, I was even an on-call funeral singer.
Aside from preparing for HippoCamp 2018 (of course!), what are you working on? Any recent or upcoming projects/publications you can share?
My reported memoir, A Dirty Word, is coming out at the beginning of October. Check it out here!
Since you’ll also be attending the conference, what are you most looking forward to learning or doing when you’re not wearing your “speaker hat?”
My favorite thing about writing conferences is having the chance to meet and hang with other writers (though I’m also a socially anxious introvert and you may or may not find me hiding in a corner with a book). Beyond that, though, I’m looking forward to a session from Anita Gill on my personal nemesis: crafting endings in nonfiction essays.
Steph, thanks for sharing more about your session! See you at the conference!
Register to reserve your place today.
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