MEM 118 — The Language of Grief: A Generative Writing Course
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Jayson Greene
Date(s): Jun 25—Jul 30
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:30 pm (PT)
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jun 27
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
Tapping into grief can unlock your most powerful writing. Whether you are working on a personal essay about loss, writing a grief memoir, or seeking to deepen the emotional impact of a story or novel, the language of loss will illuminate the darkest and most vital corners of your work. Drawing on passages by writers such as Ocean Vuong, Carmen Maria Machado, and Yōko Ogawa, we will explore how grief writing can be compelling, poetic, disorienting, and even funny.
Each session blends brief lectures, close reading, generative writing, and small-group sharing. Through carefully designed prompts, such as writing a letter to someone lost or recalling a moment of grief using only one of five senses, you will develop a precise and resonant vocabulary for grief. You will finish with new work and a deeper understanding of how to shape loss into language that carries emotional force and leaves a lasting impression.