Upper-Level Memoir

In Person

Online

Thursdays 6/19 - 7/17
10 - 12 EST

Amanda Parrish Morgan

$420.00

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Course Description

This class is open for registration by permission of the instructor only. Please submit an example of your work prior to registration. Please click this form to apply.

Five Thursday Sessions

10 – 12 EST

Dates: 6/19 – 7/24

Online or In Person

In The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr writes that “every writer needs two selves–the generative self and the editor self.” This upper level class is for intermediate and advanced writers looking for both. Writers should be working on a memoir rather than reported nonfiction or journalism, but within the memoir genre, work need not fit a certain style to be a good fit for this class.

We will begin each class with a quick 10 minute generative exercise, and then writers will share and receive feedback. Each writer will have the opportunity to share up to 15 pages of writing during two occasions throughout the summer session.

In addition to discussion of specific pages, we’ll also tackle some of the broader questions of upper level memoir writing. Students are encouraged to take risks stylistically and emotionally. How do we write about people we love? About people who have harmed us? When does chronological structure work and when is it best to try another narrative frame? ist how factually verifiable do the details in a memoir have to be? How much room is there for more research in a memoir?

WHERE: In Person at 25 Sylvan Road South, Unit J, Westport, CT 06880 or online via Zoom – link will be sent prior to first class

Amanda Parrish Morgan

Amanda Parrish Morgan is the author of STROLLER (Bloomsbury 2022), of which The New Yorker wrote “the central strength of the book is not comprehensiveness but the way the stroller, and Morgan’s experience of her own strollering years, become an omnidirectional magnet, pulling disparate material into friendly proximity.”Some of Amanda’s writing has appeared in The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, Electric Literature, Carve, The American Scholar, The Ploughshares Blog, JSTOR Daily, The Washington Post, Real Simple, Women’s Running and ESPNW. Some of Amanda’s writing has appeared in The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, Electric Literature, Carve, The American Scholar, The Ploughshares Blog, JSTOR Daily, The Washington Post, Real Simple, Women’s Running and ESPNW.