OWC 201 A — The Writing Life: Form and Theory in Memoir
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Anne Zimmerman
Date(s): Sep 22—Dec 1
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class the week of November 23
Tuition: $1290
Refund Deadline: Sep 24
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Fall
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Date(s): Sep 22—Dec 1
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1290
Refund Deadline: Sep 24
Instructor(s): Anne Zimmerman
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Please Note: No class the week of November 23
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.
As Mary Karr said, "In some ways, writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist, if it’s done right." In the first course of the Memoir Writing Certificate program, students will be asked to engage deeply with their proposed memoir and the elements of craft employed in nonfiction. As we survey the diverse landscape of memoir today, we will analyze books, essays, and excerpts, experimenting with new techniques and approaches to the genre, from the narrative to the lyric, and unearthing how authors’ theories of the self inform their craft choices. The beginning of the course will be exploratory and generative, inviting students to let go of fixed notions of what their story might be. In the second half of the quarter, students will share up to 5,000 words of their memoir for peer and instructor feedback, and begin to hone their narrative persona and story, crystallizing their approach to the genre. If a student engages fully with the course, submitting a 5,000-word workshop piece and written responses to most optional creative prompts, they can expect to generate approximately 10,000 words of work in this course.
As Mary Karr said, "In some ways, writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist, if it’s done right." In the first course of the Memoir Writing Certificate program, students will be asked to engage deeply with their proposed memoir and the elements of craft employed in nonfiction. As we survey the diverse landscape of memoir today, we will analyze books, essays, and excerpts, experimenting with new techniques and approaches to the genre, from the narrative to the lyric, and unearthing how authors’ theories of the self inform their craft choices. The beginning of the course will be exploratory and generative, inviting students to let go of fixed notions of what their story might be. In the second half of the quarter, students will share up to 5,000 words of their memoir for peer and instructor feedback, and begin to hone their narrative persona and story, crystallizing their approach to the genre. If a student engages fully with the course, submitting a 5,000-word workshop piece and written responses to most optional creative prompts, they can expect to generate approximately 10,000 words of work in this course.
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 is a 2025–26 Stony Brook University BookEnds Fellow. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Elissa Altman, Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create (ISBN 1567927637)
(Required) Tracy Clark-Flory, My Mother's Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past (ISBN 1668083329)
(Required) Tracy Clark-Flory, My Mother's Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past (ISBN 1668083329)