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Memoir Writing II Book
GUIDE TO NONFICTION COURSES
Nonfiction Pathways
Foundation
If you’re not sure what kind of nonfiction to write...
If you know what kind of nonfiction to write...
Memoir I
Essay & Opinion Writing
Feature Article Writing
Blog & Newsletter Writing
Travel Writing
Food Writing
Or...
If you want a rather short course...
Memoir Intensive
Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
Personal Essay Writing
Feature Article Writing Intensive
Humor Writing Intensive
Blog & Newsletter Writing Intensive
Next Steps
After completing a Level I ten-week course...
After completing Memoir II, if you want to write a book...
Selling Your Work
If you hope to get published somewhere...
Also Helpful
These essential courses are great for writers of any level.
Memoir Writing II Book is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. The focus is on writing a book-length memoir. The prerequisite is Memoir II; Level II courses work best when students know the fundamentals and have experience with the workshop process. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Every life holds many tales. Whether your life is wildly unconventional or relatively normal, there’s bound to be something fascinating about it. That’s why the contemporary memoir—everyday people telling their stories—has become such a popular phenomenon. A memoir covers an aspect of a life, whether it’s a short piece about, say, a bicycle ride with a friend, or a book about, say, your entire childhood.
To make readers care, your memoir must be told with the finesse of fiction. Here you will learn techniques for focusing your life stories, as well as writing craft and how to market your work.
Whether you seek to write essay-length pieces or a book, we’ll show you how to best tell the stories from your life.
A great opportunity to learn memoir writing, using many examples from famous memoirs, supported by the detailed structure and focus needed to convey a compelling life story.
Lizzie Belden
project manager
Upcoming Classes
NYC COVID Info
10-Week
-
Online
Anytime, week-long sessions
Tuition: $439 (returning students: $409)
-
One-on-One
Tuition: $1,895
Syllabus
This course focuses on book-length memoirs, helping you sharpen your skills at memoir craft and work toward completion of a book. Writers often repeat Memoir II to continue their projects. Course components:
Lectures
Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work three times)
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
Who Cares?: How to make readers care about your story. Finding the right focus. Ways to entice—literary finesse, time/place, wisdom, humor. Finding the universality.
Week 2
The Journey: Finding the journey of the protagonist (you). Protagonist’s desire. The arc of the protagonist. The climax.
Week 3
Designing Your Life: Structuring the book. Chronological structure. Collage structure. Organizing principle structure. How to find the right design.
Week 4
Playing with Time: Finding the right time frame. Flashbacks. Flash-forwards. Fluidity.
Week 5
The Narrator: Importance of the narrator. Exploration of voice. The youthful voice. Action and reflection. Non-first person strategies. Tense. Eccentricities.
Week 6
The Cast: Choosing the cast (who will appear). Bringing characters to life. Relationships. The tribute memoir.
Week 7
Family Memoir: Exploration of the family memoir. Bringing broad appeal. The role of family. The role of you. Strategies for structuring the family memoir.
Week 8
Tributaries: Subplots. Background information. Specialized information. Managing the tributaries.
Week 9
Plumbing the Depths: Delving into memories. Delving into pain. Dealing with the issue of hurting people in your memoir.
Week 10
Publishing a Book: When you need a book proposal. Basics of the book proposal. Soliciting agents and publishing house. Tips for maximizing your chance of publishing a book.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Elizabeth Cohen
Elizabeth Cohen is the author of the memoir The House On Beartown Road (Random House), the short story collectionThe Hypothetical Girl (Split Oak Press), and the poetry collections The Economist's Daughter (Ecstatic Utterance), What the Trees Said (Split Oak Press), Bird Light, The Patron Saint of Cauliflower (both Saint Julian Press), and Wonder Electric (Kelsay Books). She is also co-author of the nonfiction book The Scalpel and the Silver Bear (Bantam). Her nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Newsweek, People, the New York Times Magazine, and Yale Review, as well as the anthology Walk on the Wild Side. She has taught at SUNY Plattsburgh, Binghamton University, University of New Mexico, the New School for Social Research, and Western Connecticut State University. She holds a BA from University of New Mexico, an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Temple University, and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University.
Read moreElizabeth Cohen
Elizabeth Cohen
is the author of the memoir The House On Beartown Road (Random House), the short story collectionThe Hypothetical Girl (Split Oak Press), and the poetry collections The Economist's Daughter (Ecstatic Utterance), What the Trees Said (Split Oak Press), Bird Light, The Patron Saint of Cauliflower (both Saint Julian Press), and Wonder Electric (Kelsay Books). She is also co-author of the nonfiction book The Scalpel and the Silver Bear (Bantam). Her nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Newsweek, People, the New York Times Magazine, and Yale Review, as well as the anthology Walk on the Wild Side. She has taught at SUNY Plattsburgh, Binghamton University, University of New Mexico, the New School for Social Research, and Western Connecticut State University. She holds a BA from University of New Mexico, an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Temple University, and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University.
Related Courses
Essay & Opinion Writing I
Various types of viewpoint writing—essays, op-eds, reviews, and more.
Humor Writing
Prose writing with a humorous slant—fiction, memoir, essay, you name it.
Creative Nonfiction 101
A great entry point for the creative forms of nonfiction—memoir, essay, feature articles, reviews, etc.
