The Art and Craft of Memoir

The nonfiction genre of memoir is a special and highly regarded literary form. Because we are all unique, writing from a first-person perspective allows us to explore a diversity of approaches to this highly adaptable medium.

Through close reading, group discussion, and focused writing, this online workshop examines the tools and approaches for writing memoir. Through generative prompts, you learn techniques for focusing your life stories. Whether you are working on personal essays, a longer memoir, or would just like to take a shot at writing more about personal experiences, this class guides you through the process.

Memoir relies on the subjective and unreliable nature of memory. Whether your life is a fascinating series of adventures, or a classic tale of everyday experiences, turning it into memoir requires the finesse of fiction while maintaining a reliance on the facts. With Gina Rae’s help, you develop an awareness of the types of memoir writing, learn about the aesthetics of memoir, and create your own writings. We cover the structure, themes, narrative devices, emotional tones, settings, and the unifying images of memoir. And we address perhaps the most important question: what to put in and what to leave out?

By relying on sensory detail, you become an editor of your own life, imposing a narrative on an unwieldy memory and a half-remembered past to craft moving and entertaining stories that reach to the heart and truth of what it means to be human.