The Memoir Series: Details! Details! Details!

The fact that something is true doesn’t make it feel true. Verisimilitude is achieved on the page through the inclusion of strange details that elude readers' expectations and that can only come out of lived experience. It is our job as writers to try to find these fresh, precise details and avoid the sort of clichéd writing that makes readers' eyes glaze over. Through in-class writing exercises and close readings and discussion of works by Joe Brainard, Paul Auster, and Mary Karr, we will discuss the sort of details that give writing its spark and that make private worlds come alive. Readers should expect to leave the class with a fresh perspective on their work and the beginnings of strong new material.

Part of GrubStreet's Memoir Series, dedicated to the craft and process of memoir writing. For more on this series' offerings, click here.