Nonfiction: Reading and Writing the Memoir

3 units

In this generative writing workshop, we study the techniques of creative writing through both reading and writing memoir with a particular interest in combining personal experience with an awareness of cultural and historical place. To this end, we will read a selection of global memoirs with an eye toward understanding the ways in which they demonstrate the intersection of storytelling and voice within cultural and historical contexts, and we will use these works as models for generating, workshopping, and revising our own memoirs.