Melinda Ferguson shares her vast experience – as both an author and as a publisher – in this popular genre. This masterclass in memoir, one of many she has run, includes how to navigate mapping out and writing your memoir, silencing your inner critic, telling the truth and navigating the fallout after telling it.

About the facilitator:

Melinda Ferguson burst onto the local literary scene with Smacked: A Harrowing True Story of Addiction to Survival in 2005. Her triumphant journey from being a homeless heroin and crackhead to success, captured the nation. She has written three subsequent memoirs: Hooked, Crashed and Bamboozled and is currently working on her next one, Terminated. In 2012 she graduated from Wits with an Honours in Publishing and went on to publish over a hundred titles, first with Jacana Media and then with NB Publishers. In 2025 she launched her independent publishing house that hosts the imprints Melinda Ferguson Books and Ride or Die Press. Over the last decade she has facilitated many sold-out writing workshops.