ONGOING
Advanced Memoir Workshop at The Writers Studio begins 4/15/ 2021 (Closed)
Memoir Workshop at The Writers Studio begins 4/28/2021 Register here
Brooklyn Level 1 Fiction & Poetry Workshop at The Writers Studio. Next class TBD.
For editorial consultations, individual tutorials or semi-private sessions, please contact me.
TESTIMONIALS
“Sylvie, I agree with what others have said, that your teaching and critiques have been enormously insightful. What was most helpful to me from your critiques was how you so intuitively zeroed in on my struggle to make my narrator more visible to the reader and more obvious in her voice. I would never have seen this without your comments.
As a therapist, I have learned to stay out of the fray in order to be objective and, I hope, helpful to my clients as a knowledgeable outsider without bias. This clearly is not the same assignment as that of a narrator!! It is taking a lot of effort to “put myself back in”, so to speak. (In truth, I am an extrovert and prefer being a more “relational” therapist where the therapist acknowledges the space between herself and the client, not just focusing on the client’s experience in a vacuum.)
Nevertheless, your feedback, Sylvie, has opened up a whole new horizon for me to consider in my writing and also personally. […] Thank you.” – Katharine
“I’ll be sending in my last assignment soon, but I wanted to take a moment to thank you for you many thoughtful and useful critique suggestions. This is my first online class. Each assignment taught me things that I have been able to incorporate into my memoir work. Even these few classes have been immediately helpful. I spent a lifetime writing expository prose. Everything was objective. Everything I wrote was stripped of emotion, no color, no sound. Writing dialogue is very new to me. I am learning […] Take care. With Gratitude,” – Mike G.
“Sylvie: Thank you so much for mentoring this class. Your explanations of and insights into the six authors was so helpful and well done. Your critiques were spot on, constructive and gentle. My first writing class ever. My daughter enrolled me as a Christmas present. Thanks to you i was totally engaged and had lots of fun. Thanks and best wishes” – Steve
“Sylvie: thank you for a wonderful class. I truly enjoyed all the excerpts and models you selected and I found the format instructive and challenging. I most enjoyed your positive and constructive feedback and that of my classmates. A wonderful experience that exceeded my expectations for an online class. Thank you and all my wonderful classmates. I look forward to reading your books in the future! ” – Celia R.
“…And thank you most sincerely for creating such and incredible safe space for all of us to be so open and free with our writing and sharing of our stories. For me it has been such a gift.” – Toni
“I have been taking an amazing Memoir Workshop with the Writer’s Studio in NYC. The workshop has really advanced my process and although this workshop is in NYC they also offer classes/workshops online and occasionally in “the Hudson Valley”. My current teacher is Sylvie Bertrand and her September workshop will be online.” – Angela T.
“I wanted to put on record my gratitude for your stewardship of the class I attended. It was an eminently enjoyable workshop and I feel I’ve markedly improved as a writer because of it.” – Brendan.
SV Bertrand 