Memoir writing as a wellness practice
Our March workshop featured a motivating and practical presentation by author, educator, and memoirist Andrea Gilats on why and how we should write down our personal stories. She views memoir writing as a wellness practice. Not only does it give our children and grandchildren insights into who we are, but it also helps us gain contentment and closure.
Gilats suggested we should start by thinking small: Write small stories about trips, milestones, events, passages, and other aspects of our lives. When we write about these things, we should recount not only the details, but also our feelings and attitudes toward them—then and now.
Importantly, we should just let our stories flow, using lots of words, Gilats said. There will be time for refining and editing later. By letting our words flow, we process our stories more fully and make them more vivid.
Memoir writing shouldn’t be intimidating. Everyone can do it.
Gilats’ most recent book, Radical Endurance, a memoir published by University of Minnesota Press, is described as “A personal guide to the transformations, hard truths, profound pleasures, and infinite possibilities of aging.”
—Ron Matross, UMRA Program Committee
Writing our lives
Tue, March 17, 2026, at 11am
Andrea Gilats
Award-winning writer, educator, artist
University of Minnesota
Event to be held via Zoom.
As we savor the hard-earned pleasures of later life, writing the stories of our lives can help us recall what we would otherwise have forgotten, and enable us to more deeply appreciate both our own stories and those of others.
UMRA’s Living Well Workshop on Tuesday, March 17, via Zoom will explore how to transform your memories, including those that have faded with time, into lively true stories. It will give you ways to recall and describe some of your most memorable experiences, life lessons, and attachments. And it will help show you how to reflect on them; how to express how you felt, then and now, about the twists and turns of your life; and how to connect your stories to the values and beliefs you want to pass on. In the end, the most indelible gift we can give to our children, our grandchildren, our communities, and the wider world, is the gift of allowing them to know us.
Our presenter, UMRA member Andrea “Andy” Gilats, PhD, is an award-winning writer, educator, artist, and former yoga teacher who created and directed lifelong learning programs at the University of Minnesota for 34 years, including the legendary Split Rock Arts Program and Encore Transitions: Preparing for Post-Career Life.
Among her books are two published by the University of Minnesota Press: Radical Endurance: Growing Old in an Age of Longevity (2024), and After Effects: A Memoir of Complicated Grief (2022).
In 2024, Gilats received a Professional Development Grants for Retirees award from UMRA to support travel related to her memoir in progress, Somewhere Over the Rainbow: An Art Lover’s Life-Changing Journey into Native America.
Register for this workshop through the UMRA member portal. Registrations will be accepted any time up to and including the day of the webinar. The Zoom link to join the webinar will be sent to you in both your confirmation email and a reminder email the day before the program.
Please register and join us at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17, for what promises to be an engaging and meaningful session.
—Ron Matross, UMRA Program Committee