CNF 79 — Memory to Memoir: Crafting Compelling Stories from Difficult Experiences
Quarter: Spring
Day(s): Thursdays
Course Format: Live Online (About Formats)
Duration: 9 weeks
Date(s): Apr 6—Jun 1
Time: 6:30—9:20 pm (PT)
Refund Deadline: Apr 8
Units: 2
Tuition: $650
Instructor(s): Daniel Barban Levin
Limit: 21
Class Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
Spring
Date(s)
Apr 6—Jun 1
9 weeks
Refund Date
Apr 8
2 Units
Fees
$650
Instructor(s):
Daniel Barban Levin
Limit
21
Recording
Yes
Closed
How do we use the tools of great writing to tell the stories that feel the riskiest to us, the bravest, the most difficult to articulate, the stories we least and most want to share? This course is for anyone with memories ranging from a single experience to a life story that they are having trouble putting into words, but which they feel they must dislodge. These are the stories most worth telling, the perspectives worth sharing.
During this course, students will participate in weekly discussions of readings meant to stimulate new thinking as to how to articulate the past—how to transform, as Louise Glück says, “the mutilator [into] the benefactor.” Every two weeks, students will submit drafts of their new work to be workshopped in small groups, with the goal of completing one to three individual essays or chapters of a longer memoir project by the end of the course.
While this course will focus on the writing of memoiristic prose, readings may be drawn from a variety of intersecting disciplines. Diverse, creative approaches that utilize the tools of multiple genres will be encouraged. Readings will include works by Eula Biss, Anne Boyer, Joe Brainard, Dave Eggers, Saidiya Hartman, D.J. Waldie, Mary Karr, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, and Dani Shapiro, among others.
During this course, students will participate in weekly discussions of readings meant to stimulate new thinking as to how to articulate the past—how to transform, as Louise Glück says, “the mutilator [into] the benefactor.” Every two weeks, students will submit drafts of their new work to be workshopped in small groups, with the goal of completing one to three individual essays or chapters of a longer memoir project by the end of the course.
While this course will focus on the writing of memoiristic prose, readings may be drawn from a variety of intersecting disciplines. Diverse, creative approaches that utilize the tools of multiple genres will be encouraged. Readings will include works by Eula Biss, Anne Boyer, Joe Brainard, Dave Eggers, Saidiya Hartman, D.J. Waldie, Mary Karr, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, and Dani Shapiro, among others.
DANIEL BARBAN LEVIN
Author
Daniel Barban Levin is the author of Slonim Woods 9, a memoir about his experience joining and escaping a cult. He received an MFA in poetry from UC Irvine. He is the recipient of the Lipkin Prize for Poetry and the Lynn Garnier Memorial Award, and his writing has appeared in Provincetown Arts, Bat City Review, Sarah Lawrence Review, The Westchester Review, Offbeat, and The Fourth River. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Lynda Barry, What It Is (ISBN 978-1897299357)
(Required) Joe Brainard, I Remember (ISBN 978-1887123488)
(Required) DJ Waldie, Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir (ISBN 978-0393327281)
(Required) Dani Shapiro, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (ISBN 9780525434030)
(Required) Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (ISBN 978-0375725784)
(Required) Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (ISBN 978-1555976903)
(Required) Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (ISBN 978-1555977351)
(Required) Anne Boyer, The Undying (ISBN 978-1250757982 )
(Required) Joe Brainard, I Remember (ISBN 978-1887123488)
(Required) DJ Waldie, Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir (ISBN 978-0393327281)
(Required) Dani Shapiro, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (ISBN 9780525434030)
(Required) Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (ISBN 978-0375725784)
(Required) Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (ISBN 978-1555976903)
(Required) Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (ISBN 978-1555977351)
(Required) Anne Boyer, The Undying (ISBN 978-1250757982 )