Advanced Memoir

This course is intended for experienced writers of memoir who want to produce publishable work. A perennially popular genre, memoir transforms real-life experiences into art. In the first half of the course, we study the work of great memoirists, ranging from canonical favorites (such as Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and E.B. White) to emerging and experimental voices (including Alex Marzano-Lesnevich and Carmen Maria Machado). In the second half, we use what we have learned—about scene, exposition, character, point of view, and voice—to produce new work. Students may write chapters from a memoir project or standalone personal essays.