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Lorraine AshLorraine Ash, MA, is the author of Life Touches Life: A Mother’s Story of Stillbirth and Healing (NewSage Press, 2004) and Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life (Cape House Books, 2012). Both are memoirs, a genre she sees as socially important.
“We each were born as a character into a family and cultural story and not always in the roles we would have chosen for ourselves,” she says. “Then fate takes us in unexpected directions. Writing memoir is a way to weave our outer and inner lives to create meaning and trace and direct our evolving identities over time.” What does all that mean for the culture at large? Nothing helps the human race see and understand itself more than such honest witnessing in every corner of the human experience. There is no taboo territory in autobiographical writing, which the author William Dean Howells once called “the most democratic province in the republic of letters.” In her workshops and writing retreats Lorraine presents nuts-and-bolts techniques and examples from successful published works to guide new writers in creating their very best work. Participants learn to find their strongest writing voice, structure their stories in compelling ways, and see their lives from surprising and useful new angles. All these goals are achieved in an informal backdrop of serenity and relaxation. “The ultimate achievement for writers,” Lorraine says, “is to lead themselves, and their readers, to some truth.” Through her business, Lorraine Ash Literary Enterprises, she also ghostwrites and edits books and coaches authors one-on-one. In addition to her books, she has written shorter memoiric works that have appeared in anthologies, including Steeped in the World of Tea and various journals and webzines such as Cairn, Journeys, Ducts, and Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing. Currently, she is working on Missing Mae, a memoir. Lorraine brings her sensibilities as a journalist to all she does. In another professional incarnation, she was an editor/reporter in her native New Jersey and holds a master’s degree in Communications from Fordham University. She worked for the Ridgewood News, Daily Record, and Daily Voice. Her articles and special series have gained global, national, state, and regional attention and awards and have appeared in a number of newspapers, including USA Today. Lorraine is active in the evolving world of stillbirth research and legislation. As a peer grief contact, she also works one-on-one with bereaved mothers of infants. She lives in Allendale, New Jersey, with her husband, Bill, a jazz trumpeter. Her non-literary passions include cooking, yoga, great dramas, and the state of Maine.
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