Press Kit | Writing from Near and Far

Bio

Jillian Schedneck is the author of the memoir Abu Dhabi Days, Dubai Nights, and the writing craft book, Write Your Travel Memoir: A Step-by-Step Guide. From being afraid to leave the United States at twenty-years-old, Jillian has since travelled extensively and lived abroad. These experiences have inspired here travel memoir books, essay writing, and nonfiction teaching. She is passionate about helping others tell the meaningful stories of their travels. Her own stories and essays have been published in a variety of journals, including Brevity, Redivider, The Summerset Review, and elsewhere. Her work has been chosen as a notable essay in the Best American Essays series and won a Solas Award for Best Travel Writing. She lives in Canberra, Australia, with her partner and two children.

Jillian holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and a PhD in Gender Studies. She’s been featured in many news outlets, such as ABC Radio National, Compulsive Reader Talks, and Southern Radio FM Victoria. Jillian has been an invited speaker to present numerous writing workshops, such as Travel Memoir Writing and Reading Like a Writer, at the South Australia Writers’ Centre, and has been a guest at literary festivals, such as the Southern Highlands Literary Festival.

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Book covers and information

Abu Dhabi Days, Dubai Nights
Jillian Schedneck
Published in March, 2012
ISBN: 9781743345474
Category: Memoirs, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
Imprint: Macmillan Australia

When Jillian Schedneck takes up a position teaching English to a classroom of UAE students in Abu Dhabi, she is young, idealistic, in love, and ready to take on the world. But it is not exactly what she anticipated: her mostly female students are only attending university as a token distraction from what will become a life spent attending to domestic duties, and Jillian struggles with the limitations to their futures that they seem to so readily accept.

Facing the contradicting culture of extreme wealth and luxury, but little real opportunity, Jillian finds herself deeply intrigued by the women of the UAE. As she negotiates her way around classrooms of unlikely students, they start to come alive as Jillian introduces them to writers such as Virginia Woolf, and poses questions about feminism. But she is not only opening up a new world to them. She also finds her own cultural assumptions being challenged, and begins to realise how much her time in these desert cities have shaped the woman she will become.

Reminiscent of Nine Parts of Desire and Reading Lolita in Tehran, this compelling memoir announces the arrival of an exciting new writer.

How to Write Your Travel Memoir: A Step-by-Step Guide
Jillian Schedneck
Published in January, 2023
ISBN: 979-8370078644
Category: Travel Writing Reference, Creativity (Books), Travelogues and Travel Essays

“I loved this book and I learned so much. I wish I’d had this before writing my memoir, but believe me, I’ll use it from here on.”

Marilyn Abildskov, author of The Men in My Country, Professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing, Saint Mary’s College of California

Maybe you’re writing a travel memoir book. Maybe you want to write a few stories from your incredible journeys. Either way, you’re in the right place. If you follow this step-by-step guide, you’ll write a story your audience will want to keep reading.

The first step is the opening: your invitation to the reader. I share two formulas for opening your story in an engaging and powerful way. Next comes your quest. As soon as you introduce your want or desire, you’ve stated your quest. And once you do that, the reader will instantly want to know if you’ll achieve it. Building scenes to suit your quest covers how to focus on the scenes, actions, and descriptions that tie to your quest. Next you’ll learn how to weave backstory into your tale, and learn the kinds of backstory that are important to include. We then come to the all-important ending. I have several formulas for you to consider, one of which will suit your story.

If you follow along, by the end of this book you’ll have written a compelling tale and have the tools to keep going. Let’s get started!