Department of English

Memory arrives in fragments. Truth erupts; it finds us. A button on a sweater flashes us back to a day of gift giving. A childhood book recalls the one who read the tale out loud. In this class we’ll explore the moments of our lives through prompts that range from the tactile to the auditory, the documented to the whispered. We’ll produce and share miniature essays. We’ll create, as a final product, a curated memoir-in-essays. We’ll take inspiration from writers such as Margaret Renkl, Charles D’Ambrosio, Durga Chew-Bose, Elissa Washuta, Brian Doyle, Marc Hamer, and Alexander Chee.

This course will incorporate a mix of synchronous and asynchronous components.