Life Writing and Writing Life Short Course
Course description
Course overview
This course will look at published examples of Life Writing by authors like Joan Didion, Maggie Nelson, Annie Dillard, Rebecca Solnit, Carmen Maria Machado, Denis Johnson, Geoff Dyer and others who have used their lives in their writing and their writing in their lives.
Students will try their hand at writing different genres of Life Writing that can also span other creative non-fiction genres, such as personal essay, memoir, environmental and place-based writing to think about ways of shaping their 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 course is suitable for all levels and is aimed at people who have memoirs bursting to get onto the page and for people who want to turn their life into stories and for those who are curious about how life and writing can merge with other genres in unexpected ways. Having a willingness to explore the craft of writing and a very good command of the English language will be an advantage.
Key information
Topics covered
- Creative writing skills: fundamental techniques and concepts relevant to life writing and memoir
- Discussion of published examples (provided) of life writing and creative non-fiction in general
- Workshopping and critical discussion of pieces of writing from a variety of styles and genres from memoir, place writing, travel writing, journalism, essays and more experimental forms
- Discuss hybrid forms of life writing
- How to position yourself with respect to the landscape of life writing and creative non-fiction
Learning outcomes
- Gain knowledge and insights into write a memoir and bring your life alive on the page
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
- Pencil or pen
- Paper
- Laptop
Students do not have to purchase books or materials for this class as the tutor will be providing handouts. Students need to have a willingness to mine their lives and minds for stories and an eagerness to share their work.
Some recommended reading:
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
- The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
- Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams
- This Writing Life by Annie Dillard
- This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
- The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
- The Argonauts and Bluets by Maggie Nelson
- In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
- Heart Berries by Therese Marie Mailhot
- Why be happy when you can be normal by Jeanette Winterson
- The Observable Universe by Heather McCalden
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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