Writing Memoir Outside the Lines - Remote!

Class Description

Memoir is a powerful way to tell your personal truth. In this class, you will learn to shape and mold that truth in wonderful ways that are unique to your voice. If you're dreaming of writing a genre-bending memoir, or you believe that chronology is a suggestion and not a rule, bring your eccentrically wonderful self to this class.

Writers in this six-week course will stretch the limits of the form and structure at the conceptual phase of writing memoir through a series of short in-class writing exercises and reading excerpts. You will have an opportunity to share and workshop one to two short pieces of memoir (depending on the class size) with the group. The group will participate in on-the-spot feedback of each piece, focusing on its power. When sharing, you will have the opportunity to ask two questions related to your piece that the group will dive into.

Writers will leave with scenes they can build on and concepts that can be applied to a book-length or short memoir.

Authors studied may include, but are not limited to: Binyavanga Wainaina, Kyo Maclear, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kiese Laymon, Helen MacDonald, Terese Marie Mailhot, V.S. Naipaul, Grace Talusan, and Teju Cole.

Potential Reading List:
- One Day I Will Write About This Place - Binyavanga Wainaina
- Birds, Art, Life - Kyo Maclear
- Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
- In-Between Days - Teva’s Harrison
- Lose Your Mother - Saidiya Hartman
- Heavy - Kiese Laymon
- H is for Hawk - Helen MacDonald
- Heart Berries - Terese Marie Mailhot
- In My Moccasins - Helen Knott
- They Left Us Everything - Plum Johnson
- Beyond a Boundary - C.L.R. James
- Letters to My Father - V.S. Naipaul
- The Yellow House - Sarah M. Brown
- The Body Papers - Grace Talusan
- Teju Cole - Human Archipelago

Please note: Class does not meet Wednesday, November 3rd (Election Day).

This class will be hosted using live Zoom meetings! You will be able to participate in class via Zoom videoconference from wherever you’re most comfortable. All you’ll need is a laptop or a phone! About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting via Zoom–no need to download anything or sign up for Zoom in advance! If you have questions about remote learning, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] for more information.

For a glimpse at how remote learning works, look no further than the deep Zoom discussion of writing and literature below:

Scholarship Information

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 more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.