The Memoir Seminar: Action and Conflict

The Spring 2024 Memoir Seminar will focus on characters and the necessity of depicting three-dimensional and believable people. Readers will connect to the memoir only in so far as they can connect to the characters. When writing a memoir, authors should ask themselves what makes a character memorable, and consider how to humanize characters in their stories by showing a character's appearance, manner of speech, and personality. The class will read and discuss short stories and memoirs that exemplify the ways authors bring people to life in a narrative. Then the class will apply what they've learned to their own writing.