Life and Memoir Writing Short Course
Course description
Course overview
Have you always wanted to write a memoir? Do you find yourself thinking about how to bring scenes from your life alive on the page? If so, then this course if for you.
We'll be looking at published examples of Life Writing by authors like Joan Didion, Maggie Nelson, Carmen Maria Machado, Sheila Heti, Heather McCalden, Ann Patchett, Lauren Elkin, Kathleen Jamie and Jeanette Winterson, among others who have used their lives in their writing and their writing in their lives.
You'll work towards honing your voice and sharpening your memories and observations in order to get your experiences onto the page. We'll workshop pieces every week and discuss genres of Life Writing that overlap with other creative non-fiction genres, such as personal essay, memoir, environmental and place-based writing to think about ways of shaping life experiences into prose.
The class will involve take-home written assignments as well as workshopping and reading work aloud in the classroom.
Who this course is for
This 5-week evening course is aimed at anyone who has ever wanted to put aspects of their life down on paper, whether in the form of travel writing, reportage, family history or memoir. The course offers students the tools, time and discipline to get started on a personal project of Life Writing.
It would be an excellent fit for beginners and those who have started on a project but need some help developing it and taking it forward. Anyone who is curious about how writers shape their lives into essays and memoir would also enjoy this course.
Key information
Topics covered
- Life Writing and Memoir
- Workshopping
- Techniques of Good Writing and Editing
- Research
- Publishing
Learning outcomes
- Hone your voice and sharpen memories and observations to get your experiences onto the page
- Workshop pieces and discuss genres of Life Writing that overlap with other creative non-fiction genres
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
- Laptop
- Notebook and pen
- For the first class, please bring a work of Life Writing that you have read or are currently reading
- If you are taking this course online, please see our Guide to taking online short courses.
Tutor
Joanna Pocock
Joanna Pocock is the 2018 winner of the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize for 'Surrender', her book-length memoir and meditation on the American West, its land and its people. 'Surrender' has been compared to the writings of Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Elkin, Garnette Cadogan and Iain Sinclair and described as a 'necessary read for our times'. The book has been published in the UK, US and Canada, and been translated into French and Spanish. Joanna is an Arts Foundation Fellow, a 2021 winner of the Arts Foundation Prize in Environmental Writing and has been recently shortlisted for the Nature Chronicles Prize in Nature Writing. Her writing and photo essays have been published in a variety of outlets in the UK and US, most notably The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Orion, The New Statesman, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, Granta, Dazed & Confused and Tank Magazine. She has been teaching creative writing, both fiction and non-fiction, for two decades and brings a wealth of writing, editing and publishing experience to her classes. When she isn't writing and teaching, Joanna works as an editor at the Dark Mountain Project and for Verso Books. Her next book, 'Greyhound', is being published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Soft Skull (US) in Summer 2025.
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