Week 1 (March 9): Creating Your Blueprints with Marion Roach Smith

Marion Roach Smith is has been teaching memoir for years and is especially well known for helping writers understand the ins and outs of memoir structure. This class will support you to consider what holds a memoir together, whether your book will benefit from being broken up into Acts, and why your book structure is always informed by your argument. This invaluable starting point to this six-week class will get you jazzed as you consider the blueprint for your memoir and how it will support you to write the best memoir you can write.

Week 2 (March 16): Laying Your Foundation with Wendy C. Ortiz

This class is all about beginnings. You have an idea, or maybe you’re already started, but you’re not sure the beginning is really the beginning, or maybe you struggle with how to start chapters, or even how to start scenes. Wendy C. Ortiz, whose memoir, Excavation was named one of “11 Groundbreaking Books About Women Making History With Their Thinking, Activism, And Courage,” knows a thing or two about foundations—from mining memories, to using journals and web writing into her memoir. This class will include strategies writers can use to support the unfolding of the story along the way. 

Week 3 (March 23): Building Your Dream House with Porochista Khakpour

Here’s the hardcover craft class every writer will be craving by the time we get to Class 3. And Porochista Khakpour will deliver scene, narration, dialogue, and more. Porochista’s writing has appeared practically everywhere, and she knows the power of drawing her readers into story, and into scene. To tell a memorable story, one that captivates a reader, you must master the tools of the trade. Here you’ll get to learn from one of the best, from the beloved author of the memoir, Sick, who teaches students all over the world how to turn story into craft.

Week 4 (March 30): Stair-steps and Thresholds—Transitions and Time in Memoir with Brooke Warner

Letting your readers know where you are in time is key to successful narration—and to not losing your reader. Brooke Warner’s enthusiasm for supporting writers to hold the time, to handle time, and always to remind your reader where you are in relation to what you’ve already written will have you itching to read through your work-in-progress to make sure you’re doing just that. This class will also cover the ins and outs of line breaks and transitions and when to use them; how to skillfully integrate memory and flashback into your memoirs; and more. Step over this threshold with Brooke, author of three books on memoir, and you’ll never look at time the same way again.

Week 5 (April 6): Making It Your Own with Faith Adiele

Voice, language, and self-expression are just some of the ways that your readers experience you and get a flavor for your personality in your memoir. Faith Adiele’s intimate and personal writing is her personal springboard for inviting you into this world of self-expression and all the many access points you have—all in service of deeper excavation, and telling your story with courage, letting you shine onto the page in all your unique ways. These are the finishing touches on your house, your unique story, what makes the story yours to tell. Faith will include tips about revision, and how to elevate your language, the final polish your memoir needs.

Week 6 (April 13): The View from Your Porch with Linda Joy Myers

So, you’re more or less done, but what does it look like from your vantage point? Did you remember to tell your reader what sense you made of your experience along the way? Did you include universal truths? Did you consider the ways in which your experience is relatable and resonant, and did you invite your reader to feel those moments along with you? Memoir guru Linda Joy Myers, author of two memoirs and multiple books about memoir writing, guides us through this final but all-important element of craft—reflection, as well as takeaway, which is a form of universally reflecting (which is super important to understand, since it’s a point of heart connection with your readers). This class is all about heart, since reflection and takeaway are what will stay with your reader long after they’ve finished your book, so make sure you stay till the very end and remember that it matters to enjoy the view from the outside of what you’ve worked so very hard to create.