Courses

In this course, we will practice the art and craft of writing memoir: works of prose inspired by the memory of personal experiences and history. Each week, we will match two or three contemporary examples of the genre with one of the groundbreaking historical precedents that shaped the memoir as we read and write it today. In doing so, we will practice many different ways to approach writing our own memoir essays, chapters, and books. The course will also address how we select and write about events from our personal lives. We will read works of memoir by Leslie Jamison, Joan Didion, John Updike, Eavan Boland, and others. About half of our class time will be devoted to the discussion of student work. Students will write in class each week to develop stand-alone short memoir pieces related to the craft concepts we will study. Students will also work incrementally toward a quarter-length memoir project. All students will have the opportunity to present for workshop two shorter writing sketches and one longer draft of a memoir chapter or essay.