Class Description
Leo Tolstoy said, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In this class, we will try to explore the sticky particularities of our family stories. Through lecture, in-class exercises, and close reading of successful personal writing, this course will give you the tools to help you find the driving story in your family history. We'll also look at writing from a child's point of view and the ethics of writing about family members. Students will leave this class with new material and fresh insights into old material.
Part of GrubStreet's Memoir Series, dedicated to the craft and process of memoir writing. Classes include:
- The Memoir Series: Where to Begin
- The Memoir Series: Seeing Yourself as a Character
- The Memoir Series: Writing the Family
- The Memoir Series: Memory vs. Truth
- The Memoir Series: Details! Details! Details!
- The Memoir Series: How to Build Suspense
- The Memoir Series: The Power of Place
To learn more about instructor Alysia Abbott and her teaching style, check out the short podcast with her in our GrubStreet Instructor Interview series:
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.