Telling the Story: Reading, Viewing, and Writing the Memoir

Description

We tell stories to ourselves and to others in order to understand our experiences, to bring about social change, or to bear witness.  Memoirs describe a particular experience, an influential person in our lives, a moment of change or of understanding.  In this program we will read a variety of memoirs, view memoirs in film, and look at them both as expressions of raw experience and as literary works.  Using those memoirs as models and inspiration, we will write memoirs or portions of memoirs.  Discussions and activities will focus on aspects of the craft of memoir and on the experiences they relate.