Trauma as a Character in Writing
Name:
Trauma as a Character in Writing
Date:
January 11, 2026
Time:
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM EST
Event Description:
The Writers Alliance of Gainesville will feature teacher, storyteller, and author Kathy Connor Dobronyi as she shares her insights on incorporating trauma as a character in your writing.
Come join us at the Millhopper Library at 2:30 p.m. on the second Sunday in January, when WAG member Kathy Connor Dobronyi will share her personal stories of trauma and the stories of her characters to help you write about trauma.
Trauma is a word we often hear, yet its true nature is frequently misunderstood and underestimated. Trauma has three levels: acute, chronic, and complex, a combination of the aforementioned. No single definition of trauma suffices; it can be different things to different people.
Kathy has lived with complex trauma from a childhood of abuse and war. She used the memory of her time in Saigon, where she experienced terrorist bombings at an American theater and other facilities where Americans congregated. She also witnessed human immolation and heard the bombs and gunfire during the overthrow of the South Vietnamese president on November 1, 1963.
Kathy is not a therapist or a clinician. She is a retired high school teacher, a storyteller, and a writer. Drawing on stories from her own life and the lives of her characters, she explores the various facets of trauma and healing.
Although she wrote articles for trade journals and developed lesson plans used by the Folgers Institute, she never considered herself an author until she was asked by a local newspaper editor to write her story: Under the Wings of a Good Luck Phoenix: Memoir of an American Girl in Saigon, June 1963 to March 1964.
This program is free and open to the public. Join us!
Come join us at the Millhopper Library at 2:30 p.m. on the second Sunday in January, when WAG member Kathy Connor Dobronyi will share her personal stories of trauma and the stories of her characters to help you write about trauma.
Trauma is a word we often hear, yet its true nature is frequently misunderstood and underestimated. Trauma has three levels: acute, chronic, and complex, a combination of the aforementioned. No single definition of trauma suffices; it can be different things to different people.
Kathy has lived with complex trauma from a childhood of abuse and war. She used the memory of her time in Saigon, where she experienced terrorist bombings at an American theater and other facilities where Americans congregated. She also witnessed human immolation and heard the bombs and gunfire during the overthrow of the South Vietnamese president on November 1, 1963.
Kathy is not a therapist or a clinician. She is a retired high school teacher, a storyteller, and a writer. Drawing on stories from her own life and the lives of her characters, she explores the various facets of trauma and healing.
Although she wrote articles for trade journals and developed lesson plans used by the Folgers Institute, she never considered herself an author until she was asked by a local newspaper editor to write her story: Under the Wings of a Good Luck Phoenix: Memoir of an American Girl in Saigon, June 1963 to March 1964.
This program is free and open to the public. Join us!
Event Media:
