8 meetings

31 January to 27 March (no class 14 February)

You will be introduced to a variety of approaches to memoir and life writing through a discussion of different texts, and we'll do writing exercises to explore your material in a confidential space. There will be opportunities to share your work and get feedback if you wish.

Every week, we'll do exercises to explore aspects of the craft of writing, including how to progress and structure your writing, how to develop an individual narrative voice, mapping your plot, and how to integrate non-fiction material. Can dialogue be included/created? What kind of source material can be used? How do we navigate the vagaries of memory and differing points of view? Do we need to get the permission of others? If you want to write about your life and engage in lively discussions with other writers, then this course is for you. 

Suggested reading:

Wild; A Journey from Lost to Found - Cheryl Strayed (Atlantic Books 2012)
Educated - Tara Westover (Penguin, 2018)
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn (Penguin, 2019)

Further reading:

The Outrun - Amy Liptrot (Canongate, 2016)
Antigona  and Me - Kate Clanchy (Picador, 2009)
Truth and Beauty - Ann Pratchett (Fourth Estate, 2004)
H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald (Grove Press, 2016)
Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston (First published 1942. Virago, 2020)
Becoming - Michelle Obama (Penguin, 2018)
How we fight for our lives - Saeed Jones (Simon and Schuster, 2019)
I love Dick - Chris Kraus (Semiotext(E), 2006)
The Situation and the Story - Vivian Gornick Farra (Straus and Giroux, 2001)
The Kiss - Kathryn Harrison (Fourth Estate, 1998)
Body Work - the radical power of personal narrative - Melissa Febos (Catapault, 2022)
Sculptor's Daughter - Tove Jansson (Sort of Books, 2013)

£170

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