Memoir Writing II
GUIDE TO NONFICTION COURSES
Memoir Writing II is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. The prerequisite is Memoir I (10-week), or the equivalent; 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’ll 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.
This course was one of the best things I've done for myself to jumpstart my own work.
Adam Ward
student
Notes
A memoir is similar to a personal essay; both incorporate elements from the writer’s life. But a personal essay focuses more on the viewpoint, and a memoir focuses more on the story. Gotham also offers courses on Essay & Opinion Writing and an Intensive on Personal Essay Writing.
Upcoming Classes
-
-
You can still enroll in this class.
10-Week
-
Online
Anytime, week-long sessions
Tuition: $464 (returning students: $434)
-
Zoom
Real-time videoconference
Tuition: $464 (returning students: $434)
-
NYC
In-person
Tuition: $490 (returning students: $460)
-
One-on-One
Tuition: $1895
Syllabus
This course helps you sharpen your skills at memoir craft and work toward completion of one or two short memoirs or a book. Writers often repeat Memoir II to continue their projects. Course components:
Lectures
Writing exercises
Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two 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
Starring You: Putting yourself at the center. Creating a persona. Ways to reveal yourself on paper. Your distinctive voice.
Week 2
Describing Your Life: Conveying your view of things. How quick or lingering your views should be. Effective description.
Week 3
Story Construction: Story devices—desire/change, inciting incident/climax. The single event story. The chronological story. The collage story. Techniques for putting the story together.
Week 4
Action & Reflection: Finding the balance of action and reflection. Using action—scene and narration. Using reflection—present and past perspectives. Broader reflection. Blending action and reflection.
Week 5
Going Short: The really short memoir. Finding ideas. Short piece, big meaning. Analysis of a really short piece.
Week 6
Making Scenes: The importance of scenes. Veracity. Connecting scenes. Scene dynamics—conflict, dialogue, direction.
Week 7
Alternative Strategies: Alternative forms of memoir. Memoirs that don't just focus on you. Family history. Not first person. Unusual forms. Not just prose. The deliberate experiment. Memoir hybrids. Autobiographical fiction/fictional memoir.
Week 8
Openings/Closings: Strategies for opening a memoir. Strategies for closing a memoir.
Week 9
Humor: Using humor in memoir. Funny situations. Human folly. Writing humor. Exaggeration.
Week 10
In Print: The benefit of publishing short pieces (even if you're writing a book). Literary magazines. Mainstream and niche magazines. Newspapers. Guidelines for sending out work. Responses, rejection, contests. Other avenues to publication.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Carmen Bugan
Carmen Bugan is the author of the memoir Burying the Typewriter (Picador), the essay collection Poetry and the Language of Oppression (Oxford University), and the poetry collections Tristia, Time Being, Lillies from America, Releasing the Porcelain Birds, The House of Straw (all Shearsman Books), Sulla Soglia Della Dimenticanza (Kolibris), and Crossing the Carpathians (Carcanet Press), as well as the monograph Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile (Routledge). Her poems and essays have appeared in the Irish Times, Harvard Review, the International Literature Quarterly, the Nieman Storyboard, and the anthologies Centres of Catacylsm (Bloodaxe Books), See How I Land (Heaven Tree Press), and Penguin’s Poems for Life (Penguin). She has taught at New York University in Abu Dhabi, Stony Brook University, the University of Michigan, Grand Valley State University, the University of Fribourg, the Geneva Writers’ Group, and Oxford University. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, and a Master’s and Ph.D, both in English Literature, from Oxford University.
Read more
Cindy House
Cindy House is the author of the memoir Mother Noise (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books), and her essays and short fiction have appeared in Passengers Journal, Lily Poetry Review, Wig Leaf, Solstice Literary Magazine, Longleaf Review, and So To Speak, among others. She is a humorist who opens regularly for David Sedaris at Kennedy Center, Symphony Hall, and The Town Hall in New York, among others. She teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University. She attended the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and holds an MFA in Fiction from Lesley University.
Read more
Cullen Thomas
Cullen Thomas is the author of the memoir Brother One Cell (Viking). His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Salon, The Rumpus, The Sonora Review, World Hum, Current Biography, and Penthouse. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and the National Geographic channel and has taught at NYU. He holds a BA from Binghamton University.
Read more
Jil Picariello
Jil Picariello is the co-author of the memoir Jessica Lost (Union Square Press). She is the Theater Editor for ZealNYC, and her nonfiction has appeared in Afar, Food + Wine, New York, Seventeen, and USA Today. She has worked as a copywriter for New York and People, as copy chief for The Parenting Group at Time Warner, and as copy director for Reader’s Digest. She has taught at Media Bistro. She holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School.
Read more
Kelly Caldwell
Kelly Caldwell is the dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop. Her nonfiction has appeared in Vox, House Beautiful, SugarSugarSalt, Mizzou magazine, New York Newsday, Time Out New York, The Writer, and Essay Daily, and been named Notable by the editors of the Best American Essays series. She's also been anthologized in If These Walls Could Talk: Thoughts of Home (Hearst) and Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books). She holds a BJ from the University of Missouri and an MS from Columbia University.
Read more
Nan Mooney
Nan Mooney is the author of the memoir My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track (HarperCollins), and the nonfiction books (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents (Beacon Press) and I Can't Believe She Did That: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work (St. Martin's Press). Her nonfiction has also appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post,Slate, Motherwell, Alternet, and Babble. She holds a BA from Scripps College.
Read moreis the author of the memoir Burying the Typewriter (Picador), the essay collection Poetry and the Language of Oppression (Oxford University), and the poetry collections Tristia, Time Being, Lillies from America, Releasing the Porcelain Birds, The House of Straw (all Shearsman Books), Sulla Soglia Della Dimenticanza (Kolibris), and Crossing the Carpathians (Carcanet Press), as well as the monograph Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile (Routledge). Her poems and essays have appeared in the Irish Times, Harvard Review, the International Literature Quarterly, the Nieman Storyboard, and the anthologies Centres of Catacylsm (Bloodaxe Books), See How I Land (Heaven Tree Press), and Penguin’s Poems for Life (Penguin). She has taught at New York University in Abu Dhabi, Stony Brook University, the University of Michigan, Grand Valley State University, the University of Fribourg, the Geneva Writers’ Group, and Oxford University. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, and a Master’s and Ph.D, both in English Literature, from Oxford University.
is the author of the memoir Mother Noise (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books), and her essays and short fiction have appeared in Passengers Journal, Lily Poetry Review, Wig Leaf, Solstice Literary Magazine, Longleaf Review, and So To Speak, among others. She is a humorist who opens regularly for David Sedaris at Kennedy Center, Symphony Hall, and The Town Hall in New York, among others. She teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University. She attended the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and holds an MFA in Fiction from Lesley University.
is the author of the memoir Brother One Cell (Viking). His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Salon, The Rumpus, The Sonora Review, World Hum, Current Biography, and Penthouse. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and the National Geographic channel and has taught at NYU. He holds a BA from Binghamton University.
is the co-author of the memoir Jessica Lost (Union Square Press). She is the Theater Editor for ZealNYC, and her nonfiction has appeared in Afar, Food + Wine, New York, Seventeen, and USA Today. She has worked as a copywriter for New York and People, as copy chief for The Parenting Group at Time Warner, and as copy director for Reader’s Digest. She has taught at Media Bistro. She holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School.
is the dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop. Her nonfiction has appeared in Vox, House Beautiful, SugarSugarSalt, Mizzou magazine, New York Newsday, Time Out New York, The Writer, and Essay Daily, and been named Notable by the editors of the Best American Essays series. She's also been anthologized in If These Walls Could Talk: Thoughts of Home (Hearst) and Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books). She holds a BJ from the University of Missouri and an MS from Columbia University.
is the author of the memoir My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track (HarperCollins), and the nonfiction books (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents (Beacon Press) and I Can't Believe She Did That: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work (St. Martin's Press). Her nonfiction has also appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post,Slate, Motherwell, Alternet, and Babble. She holds a BA from Scripps College.
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.
