Advanced Nonfiction: Memoir
Date & Time
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Nov. 3 - Dec. 15*
Class Size
8 Students
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Nov. 3 - Dec. 15*
8 Students
Mary Karr says you're too young and must wait. Your mom advises, "Make sure it has a point, like Eat, Pray Love." Your best friend from third grade wants to know if he gets any lines. At parties, people laugh at you when you tell them what you're working on.
Congratulations, you’re a memoirist!
This advanced workshop will provide a support group for writers working on book-length projects based on their own personal experiences. We’ll look at different tactics for chronology and structure, how to hone in on a voice that will carry the reader from cover to cover, and what to do about the bigmouth in your head that says you need permission to write it all down. The instructor will also discuss the path to publication, including whether to finish the manuscript or submit on proposal, and will bring in one or two industry professionals to speak to the class.
During this six-week intensive workshop, each student will workshop twice and meet once with the instructor for an individual conference.
*no class meeting Nov. 24
Leigh Stein is the author of four books, including the satirical novel Self Care, forthcoming from Penguin in 2020, and the memoir Land of Enchantment. She has also written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, ELLE, Allure, BuzzFeed, Slate, and Poets & Writers.
"One of the most compelling memoirs I’ve ever read. A mesmerizing requiem on loss and love, Stein’s intelligent ode to adolescent obsession is unflinching in its honest portrayal of what it means to give ourselves over to the dark side of love. This is a glittering gem of a book."
"Leigh Stein’s LAND OF ENCHANTMENT is a thoughtful and compelling elegy to a troubled man, a broken love, and a broken dream of the west. It’s about loss, wonder, and the vexed grip of attachment. It grieves by way of admitting complexity—by answering the late-night knock of unfinished business—and its spell is immersive: Once I’d picked it up, I did not set it down again until I’d finished it."
"Not only is Leigh a sympathetic reader, an excellent and super fast editor, but she also has great ideas about where your work could find a good home and shine there. She is happy to give you the benefit of her vast contemporary reading and enormous network of fellow writers. I learned more from her in 9 months than from all my previous teachers. I only wish I could take more classes from her. See you in class?"
"Leigh is such a wonderful teacher. She considered the work of each student so carefully and drew on her incredible editing skills as well as her vast knowledge of multiple writing fields and styles to provide perceptive, detailed feedback and advice specific to each of us. In the energizing environment of her class, we were encouraged to learn from each other, to think of our work in the context of the larger literary community, to aim high and to get there. Leigh’s remarkable accomplishments are matched only by her generosity. I feel very lucky to have taken a class from her."
"Leigh Stein is proof that we write because we must. And when you answer that call, Leigh helps the words arrive and find the best place on the page. You learn to challenge yourself, through image, metaphor, and all the tools in Leigh’s bag until the work is done."
