Writing Your Memoir

Memoir is a nonfiction, literary art form that–unlike autobiography–relies heavily on storytelling techniques derived from fiction, and is formed around the memory and observation of the author. In Writing Your Memoir, students will survey from the memoir canon, including Mary Karr’s The Liars Club, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Beverly Donofrio’s Riding in Cars with Boys, Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and others, to inform their own writing. Students will have reading and writing homework and will participate in workshop-style critiques.