Food as a Doorway to Memory: A Memoir Workshop

Good food writing is rarely just about food; it’s about people, places, the way we live, the meat and bones of who we are. In this generative online workshop, author Molly Wizenberg focuses on the craft of narrative food writing, guiding participants as we explore how sensory details of food can help us unlock our most fertile memories. Cooking, eating, sharing food—from these seemingly mundane acts of daily life, we can return through language to past versions of ourselves: experiences we thought we’d forgotten, the thing our father said, the way a lover looked at us. “A single image can split open the hard seed of the past,” writes memoirist Mary Karr, “and soon memory pours forth from every direction, sprouting its vines and flowers up around you till the old garden’s taken shape in all its fragrant glory.”

Over the course of six live, online sessions, we learn, discuss, and write, as well as engage in close readings of works by writers like M. F. K. Fisher, Diana Abu-Jaber, Kiese Laymon, Garth Greenwell, Rachel Khong, and Claire Keegan. Each participant has the opportunity to share work and get feedback from the instructor and the group. No particular experience is necessary, but each student must have access to a laptop or tablet, an Internet connection, and a sense of curiosity about their lives.