MEM 112 B — Memoir Club: A Guided Writing Group
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): John W. Evans
Date(s): Jan 6—Mar 10
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—8:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Jan 8
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 5:30—8:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 6—Mar 10
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Jan 8
Instructor(s): John W. Evans
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
This course offers a supportive, structured space to work on a memoir or personal essays within an ongoing writing group spanning the academic year. Weekly meetings with the same cohort and instructor allow students to build close relationships with engaged readers and receive consistent support as they dive deeper into their work. Some writers will progress sequentially toward a book-length manuscript, while others focus on stand-alone pieces. Wherever you are in a project, this group provides space for exploration and discovery. Oral peer feedback will be central, fostering a rigorous, attentive community while students preserve time for their own writing. Everyone will receive detailed written comments from the instructor on one submission of up to 3,000 words. Above all, this course supports those seeking to make writing a more consistent and central part of their lives.
This is the second course in our Memoir Club series. The first course was offered in Fall 2026, and the third course will be offered in Spring 2027. Completing each course guarantees priority registration in the following quarter. Each course can be taken independently as well. Section A and Section B of "Memoir Club: A Guided Writing Group" cover the same content.
JOHN W. EVANS
Critical-Creative Studies Initiative Lecturer, Department of English, Stanford
John W. Evans is the author of four books. His latest, The Fight Journal, received the Rattle Prize. Should I Still Wish: A Memoir was selected for the American Lives series. Young Widower: A Memoir received the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize and a Foreword INDIES award. His work has appeared in Slate, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Zyzzyva, Poets & Writers, and The Best American Essays. Evans was a Jones Lecturer and Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.