0255 - Creative Writing: Writing Self, Land, and Memory

Course Description

“Memory begins to qualify the imagination, to give it another formation, one that is peculiar to the self …. If I were to remember other things, I should be someone else” – N. Scott Momaday.

How do personal history and storytelling intersect? How do we tell the truth about our lives? This course will experiment with writing memoir by way of craft, which means we will experiment with writing techniques: setting, scene, characterization, description, voice, and more. We will consider the different places from which each one of us writes—including the body, memory, and land. Humans love a good story, and you have many to tell!

Course Outline

• Accessing memory muscle
• Writing concrete significant details and memory
• Inherited stories and how we write ethically
• Writing from family myths
• Writing details and descriptions from a family objects/items
• Writing about the self in relation to land and memory

Learner Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will have:

• Written several pieces of short memoir/Creative Nonfiction, or they will have begun to write your memoir (book).
• Read short examples of memoir/Creative Nonfiction.
• Begun to create an archive of memory in writing.
• A sense of overall improved writing skills.

Who Should Attend?

• Everyone who wants to write memoirs
• Writers who want to explore the genre and its boundaries with fiction
• Those who have family stories they want to pass down
• Those who are interested in exploring the relationship between Creative Nonfiction and poetry

Applies Towards the Following Certificates or Series

• Certificate in Professional Writing : Certificate in Professional Writing