CNF 110 — Personal Essay and Memoir Workshop: From Life to Literature
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Alison Singh Gee
Date(s): Apr 3—Jun 5
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Apr 5
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Feb 24, 8:30 am (PT)
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” Joan Didion wrote, ruminating over the human yearning to write the stories that define our lives. In this course, writers of all levels will explore personal storytelling through the dynamic possibilities of creative nonfiction—true stories told using the techniques of fiction. We will study, discuss, and write personal essays, memoir, and explorations of travel and food. You will learn to mine your burning memories and transform factual experiences into imaginative narratives using a range of techniques. Students will examine dramatic structure, scene writing, dialogue, character development, narrative tension, and external and internal landscapes. Throughout the course, you will read examples of personal narratives by renowned authors such as David Sedaris, Cheryl Strayed, and Paul Kalanithi. You will also converse with best-selling memoirists and nationally published essayists, such as New York Times best-selling travel memoirist Tim Cahill and Vogue essayist and Travel + Leisure contributing editor Marcia DeSanctis. Each student will produce up to 5,000 words of new writing—personal essays, chapters of a memoir, or food and travel stories—as well as additional material to develop further.
ALISON SINGH GEE
Visiting Lecturer, Writing & Rhetoric, Scripps College
Alison Singh Gee is the author of the memoir Where the Peacocks Sing: A Palace, a Prince, and the Search for Home, a National Geographic Traveler Book of the Month that is being adapted as a streaming series. An international journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, InStyle, Sierra, Poets & Writers, and Vanity Fair, Singh Gee received the Amnesty International Award for Feature Writing and a silver Lowell Thomas Award for foreign travel writing. She teaches creative nonfiction and literary journalism at Scripps College. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Wesley Morris (ed.), The Best American Essays 2024 (ISBN 978-0063351554)