Department of English

Our voices as writers take shape, in large part, when we create from the complex ground of our inner landscapes, seeded by our childhood fantasies, family dynamics, myths, dreams, and emerging awareness of the cultural, psychological, and social context of the world around us. A major goal of this seminar is to help you explore, discover and write stories that transform into art some of the life experiences that have shaped you and the people around you. During class sessions, we’ll discuss the ethics of memoir, including the power of “truths” to harm other people’s lives. We’ll talk about “facts” and “fiction” in life and literature, and mine a deeper understanding of the art of memoir by reading and discussing a wide range of writers. This course is designed to help each of you foster new ways to generate ideas, write with more comfort, and learn how to construct and revise your writing. To help you access authentic voices within yourself and write more vividly about key experiences in your own lives, we will use breathing exercises, meditation, guided visualization, and a mindful practice of listening. We will practice the art of letting go, the art of being in the moment and writing out of that moment. We will create scenes, dialogue and descriptions that allow readers to inhabit the story. Our schedule will include in-class exercises; daily free-writing; personal responses to readings; work on stories, oral presentations; group work; class participation and critique workshops in which you will read aloud and receive feedback to help you find fresh ways of re-envisioning your own work. Throughout this semester, you will gain insight into ways in which all of us build narratives in an effort to make sense out of our lives and the complex process of being a conscious, mindful human being on this earth during this point in time.