OWC 203 C — Memoir I: The Powerful Launch
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Anne Zimmerman
Date(s): Jan 5—Mar 9
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1290
Refund Deadline: Jan 7
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 5—Mar 9
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1290
Refund Deadline: Jan 7
Instructor(s): Anne Zimmerman
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.
Through close analysis of a variety of published memoirs, we will assess the impact of various strategies for beginning personal narrative. We will examine prologues and first chapters, studying how they engage readers while revealing the stakes, promises, questions, and themes of a memoir. Reading assignments, structured discussions, and thought-provoking prompts will nurture the development of vivid scenes, enabling you to generate pages without the pressure of needing to structure your entire memoir yet. Seeking to uncover the psychic battle or arc of your story will provide you with a guiding principle as you continue to generate content. You will finish this course with an intentionally crafted beginning composed of thematically connected scenes.
Through close analysis of a variety of published memoirs, we will assess the impact of various strategies for beginning personal narrative. We will examine prologues and first chapters, studying how they engage readers while revealing the stakes, promises, questions, and themes of a memoir. Reading assignments, structured discussions, and thought-provoking prompts will nurture the development of vivid scenes, enabling you to generate pages without the pressure of needing to structure your entire memoir yet. Seeking to uncover the psychic battle or arc of your story will provide you with a guiding principle as you continue to generate content. You will finish this course with an intentionally crafted beginning composed of thematically connected scenes.
ANNE ZIMMERMAN
Author
Anne Zimmerman’s first book was An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher. She has compiled and published two subsequent collections of Fisher’s work: Love in a Dish…And Other Culinary Delights and M.F.K. Fisher: Musings on Wine and Other Libations. She was a 2025–26 Stony Brook BookEnds Fellow. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art (ISBN 978-0933377509)