The best memoirs are alive on the page, readable, and honour the variousness of individual version and story. This interactive course immerses participants in the demands, styles and rewards of constructing personal narratives.

In this one-day intensive, participants will interrogate honesty and memory, thinking about the slippery notion of ‘truth’ and considering the ‘dual vantage point’ in memoir. The class will cover questions of structure, character, and voice, as well as the practicalities of how to begin and how to research, using acclaimed memoirs to illustrate and analyse these points in detail. Writing exercises and handouts will accompany class discussions, leaving participants with the skills to breathe new life into their own works-in-progress.

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Expected Learning Outcomes

1. Participants will gain an understanding of how to re-construct the past, rather than re-create it.
2. Participants will consider how memory and imagination work together.
3. Participants will learn how the use of dual time periods/vantage points is crucial to successful memoir.

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Participant Requirements

Bring a few paragraphs of your memoir writing, a notebook and pen, and an open mind.