Beth is an award-winning teacher at the University of Pennsylvania. She was the 2013 Master Writing Teacher for National YoungArts, is a co-founder of Juncture Workshops, has delivered keynote addresses on the art of teaching, has led teach-the-teacher sessions, and has taught writers of all ages in a variety of settings. She has published a number of books on the teaching of memoir—Handling the Truth, Tell the Truth. Make It Matter., Strike the Empty, We Are the Words: The Memoir Master Class—and writes a monthly educational newsletter, Juncture Notes.
Beth Kephart teaches memoir, middle grade and young adult fiction, and adult fiction at the University of Pennsylvania, where she won the Beltran Teaching and Mentoring Award. Her first book on teaching—Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir—won a Books for a Better Life Award, while her teaching workbook, Tell the Truth. Make It Matter., has been adopted by a number of high school programs and adult workshop leaders. The master writing teacher for the 2013 National Young Arts program, Kephart has conducted workshops across the country, created workshop programs and festivals for young writers, lectured on the art of writing and teaching writing, written dozens of reviews and essays about books and their making for Chicago Tribune, Salon. Com, New York Times, LitHub, Philadelphia Inquirer, Millions, Creative Nonfiction, and others, and conducted teach the teacher programs in area school districts. Her teaching about walls, linked to her Berlin wall book, Going Over, was featured on WHYY radio. She is the co-founder of Juncture Workshops, which offers intensive memoir workshops, a newsletter featuring interviews with the top-working memoirists of our time, and other resources. She was Editorial Director of “Articulate with Jim Cotter,” where, in addition to identifying and researching guests and writing scripts, she created an Educational Resource Guide, now being rolled-out regionally in advance of a national push.
Beth Kephart offers a variety of teaching formats to assure a fit within the parameters and budgets of each individual school. Working with wordless picture books, texts drawn both from well-loved (and age-appropriate) fiction and nonfiction, and custom-made prompts, Kephart offers workshops that leads students toward the stories of their own lives.
Please contact Beth to inquire about rates and opportunities.
Featured talks:
Hippocampus Keynote
Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art
Radnor Senior High School Commencement Address, 2016
National Book Awards
National Council of Teachers of English
Radnor High School Hall of Fame Ceremonies
Publishing Perspectives Keynote Talk on the Future of YA
Decatur Book Festival 2013, with Stacey D’Erasmo
The Pennsylvania Gazette Centennial Celebration
Writers House, University of Pennsylvania
Glory Days Bruce Springsteen Symposium
Philadelphia Free Library
Schuylkill River Heritage Area
2010 Fox Cities Book Festival (three middle schools, three high schools in Wisconsin)
2010 Philadelphia Book Festival
Featured workshops and appearances:
Juncture Workshops Presentations
IMAGE Journal Memoir Intensives
CRAFT and Creative Nonfiction Zoom Presentations
Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art
Lonestar College, University Park, TX
Abington Library
William Jeanes Library
Radnor Memorial Library
T/E School District Teach the Teachers Program
Lower Merion School District Teaching
Rosemont College
Free Library of Philadelphia
BookExpo America
American Library Association
Loyola University
University of Pennsylvania
Chanticleer Garden
The San Francisco School
Selected judging:
NEA grant program (2000)
National Book Awards Young People’s Literature Award (2001), chair
PEN First Nonfiction Award (2004), chair
Teaching Notes
I’ve introduced middle school and high school students to the making of memoir, engaged with young poets keen on extending their craft, conducted teach-the-teachers sessions, and sat with high school seniors consulting on the realities of the writer’s life. I’ve talked research, rejection, and staying true. I’ve taken students behind the scenes and back to the pages of stories I have both loved and written. I’m equally comfortable in large lecture halls and intimate classrooms. I also connect over Skype.
Honorarium:
$1,000 – $1,200 plus expenses for a full day; $650 plus expenses for a half day.