Each session of this stimulating, deep-dive course will include timed writing exercises and group discussions on the topic at hand, whether that’s self, memory, or story. There will also be set homework each week of 1000 words maximum. Three members of the group, in rotation, will share their work with the group so that we can discuss successes, difficulties and how to move our work forward. One of the most informative ways of improving our own writing is finding solutions for others.
Over the course of three months, Miranda will lead sessions on planning, research, structuring and editing memoir and life writing, using short writing exercises that can be included as building-blocks within your own work in progress, plus workshops on individual students' writing. The course will also include a session with a Faber Non-Fiction editor.
Excerpts from the reading list will be used in class to give a grounding for the discussion around memoir and writing. The suggested reading and my own A Book of Untruths are recommended to give us inspiration and a context for the ideas. A wider range of books will be discussed as the course progresses to inform the projects students are writing.
Alan Bennett –
Untold Stories (Emotion & How to Hide It)
Augustine Burroughs – Running with Scissors (Memory)
Sujatha Gidla – Ants Amongst Elephants (Finding Your Voice)
Laura Cummings – On Chapel Sands (Structuring Story)
Maxine Hong Kingston – The Woman Warrior (Truth or Fiction)
Carmen Maria Machado – In the Dream House (Point of View)
Lemn Sissay – My Name is Why (Finding your Self)
Tara Westover – Educated (Ethics)
Svenja O'Donnell – Inge's War (Guest Speaker)