Memoir Writing Workshop

Learn a concrete, step-by-step process for turning your memories into compelling memoir through the guidance of a published memoir writer.

We all have stories to tell. Our lives are filled with characters, places, moments, conflicts, and emotions that can become the foundation of a memoir. Through readings, craft lectures, group discussions, writing prompts, and hands-on exercises, this three-day workshop will demystify the process of transforming memories into engaging personal narratives. Writers of all experience levels are welcome.

You’ll read and explore memoir and personal writing by Brian Doyle, James Baldwin, E.B. White, Joan Didion, Maxine Hong Kingston, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, and Maggie Smith. Using craft techniques demonstrated by these authors, you’ll experiment with narrative voice, scene-building, descriptive language, and structure as you develop your own short pieces. You’ll also look at how writers shape a story across an entire book and begin outlining your own memoir.

By the end of the workshop, you’ll have practical tools for developing your ideas, shaping scenes, and organizing your story, along with a clearer sense of where your memoir could go next. Come with an idea, a memory, or a story you’ve been carrying with you, and leave with a process for turning it into a memoir.