Advanced Memoir: Writing About Your Family

This is an intensive creative writing course for serious memoir writers ready to tackle one of the genre's most powerful—and difficult—topics: family. What are the ethics of writing about your parents, siblings, children, and other loved ones? How can you be honest without being cruel? Tender without being sentimental? In the first half of the course, we analyze a range of memoirists who have successfully written about complicated family dynamics; potential authors include Mary Karr, Alexander Chee, Tracy K. Smith, and Patricia Hampl. In the second half, we draft, workshop, and revise memoir pieces that reflect what we have learned. Students must craft new material for this course (such as a standalone personal essay) or develop new material for an existing project (such as a chapter in a longer memoir).