WRITERS WORKSHOP

Introduction to Memoir

LIFE WRITING

Memoir is a kind of LIFE WRITING• Life writing: the recording of selves,

memories, experiences (yours or someone else’s) • many genres and practices:

autobiography, biography, memoir, diaries, journals, letters, testimonies, personal essays, blogs, e-mails, and so on

WHAT IS A MEMOIR?Nonfiction

A kind of autobiographical writing (writing about yourself)

Captures particular scenes of life and often a reflection on meaning (i.e., ‘so what?’)

It’s not about every single thing that ever happened to you (that’s autobiography)

There may be more room to experiment than in autobiography

More exterior than an autobiography: includes other people, events you’ve witnessed, your place in your culture

ODDS ‘N’ ENDS

degrees of accuracy/truth?

what a memoir looks/sounds like

famous memoirs: Angela’s Ashes , A Million Little Pieces, Woman Warrior, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

TO DO!

Select an item from writing territories list – involving some kind of life story

• write a mini-memoir • Title: Quickwrite #1

I will read excerpts of memoirs to you…