Telling Your Story with Susan Harrison Wolffis

I love to write, always have, always will.

To me, there’s nothing more interesting — nothing more compelling — than telling people’s stories — writing about real people, real-life and all it throws our way.

I come from a daily newspaper background with its unforgiving and constant deadlines. For 40 years, I was a columnist and staff writer for The Muskegon Chronicle. I covered a variety of beats through the years — sports stories, theater and music reviews, weather stories, festivals and fairs, governmental meetings, even business stories. But I think I’m best known for my special projects and feature stories, again all based in real life. I covered the lives and funerals of nine men from West Michigan killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. I wrote about the “working poor,” families who worked multiple jobs to make ends meet — just barely. I wrote about the woman down the block who made popcorn every Friday to buy books for her kids’ school library. I wrote about a woman in hospice in her last days on this Earth, an elementary school still staffed by nuns, a little girl burned over most of her body, an astronaut from Muskegon who made it into space twice, a woman who survived the Holocaust and made her way to Muskegon, two children adopted from Korea who were blind.

I also wrote columns, a departure into the world of 

personal journalism. In many ways, the columns were my life’s story, often contemplative in nature, always a reflection in my belief that my story is also yours.

Which brings us into the present — right here, right now.

What is your story?

Do you want to save your family history for future generations? Or start a journal? Do you have stories to tell, written down and told in your own voice?

If so, let’s get together. Let’s talk, get to know one another, tell a few stories and do some writing. Let’s put our lives into the written word.

Class minimum: 4

Class maximum: 12

About the Instructor:

Susan Harrison Wolffis worked for 40 years as a columnist and staff writer for The Muskegon Chronicle. Recently, she collaborated with photographer Jennifer Green and the Muskegon Museum of Art to create the Through Our Lens: Hands Exhibition.

ACWL-Nuveen classes are supported by CatchMark Technologies, Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nuveen Benevolent Trust.