The Writing Life: Form and Theory in Memoir

This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only.

For more information on the Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here .

As Mary Karr said, "In some ways, writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist, if it’s done right." In the first course of the Memoir Writing Certificate program, students will be asked to engage deeply with their proposed memoir and the elements of craft employed in nonfiction.

As we survey the diverse landscape of memoir today, we will analyze books, essays, and excerpts, experimenting with new techniques and approaches to the genre, from the narrative to the lyric, and unearthing how authors’ theories of the self inform their craft choices.

The beginning of the course will be exploratory and generative, inviting students to let go of fixed notions of what their story might be.

In the second half of the quarter, students will share up to 5,000 words of their memoir for peer and instructor feedback, and begin to hone their narrative persona and story, crystallizing their approach to the genre.

If a student engages fully with the course, submitting a 5,000-word workshop piece and written responses to most optional creative prompts, they can expect to generate approximately 10,000 words of work in this course.