“A single image can split open the hard seed of the past.”  --Mary Karr

In this memoir workshop, we’ll sharpen our powers of observation as we look back in time, and find new routes to personal narrative. Rather than getting to stories by recounting events, we’ll take a short cut, using images that have a hold on us -- half buried treasure, half landmine -- to catapult us into story. We’ll find the underlying narrative drive in our personal stories, and experiment with ways to reveal it to its full effect.

As we develop our own writing, we’ll read published pieces for insight, examining how writers build from image, play with vantage point, and turn memory into story. Along the way we’ll discuss the urgent questions of our genre. What does it mean to write honestly? How do we depict people dear to us in their full complexity? How do we live with (and even capitalize on) the fact that our sense of the past is constantly shifting, even as we try to pin it down?

Students will generate new material through short guided exercises, which we’ll share informally. We’ll also share work more formally in our writing workshop, where we’ll offer each other thoughtful feedback. Whether you are just beginning as a writer or halfway through your memoir, this class will give you the chance to shape the stories you most want to tell.