Fifteen years ago, writer and instructor Leslie Kirk Campbell founded the Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing in San Francisco. After teaching at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as being involved in community activist work, the former O'ahu resident "hung up my shingle and have been doing it every since."

In that time 3,000 to 4,000 students have passed through her seminars, says Campbell, who is a Punahou graduate.

She's back in town and will give two one-day workshops on memoir writing.

Campbell, who calls herself an imagination activist, taps into students' memories by "getting people to trust themselves as a foundation for everything they do. They open up readily and unwittingly reveal things to themselves and to each other." She has students bring in old photographs to "ignite content," then guides them to "locate their stories."

For people who have been wanting to tell their personal story or a family history but think, "I'm not a writer," it's heartening to know that for Campbell, "there is no good and bad writing. There's just energy."

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.