Creative Writing: The Memoir

Creative Writing: The Memoir is a reading and generative writing course that will explore brilliant, hybrid memoirs such as Deborah Miranda's  Bad Indians to expand the knowledge and power of the memoir genre. Excerpts and other readings will highlight Indigenous memoir writers but also include non-Indigenous examples. Students will dig into their connection to time and place, ancestral and familial origin stories, and how personal and community identities provide the energy and motive to create story. Memoir is described as "a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources"  and is generally about a particular part or point of a person's life written in the first person point of view focusing on "personal experience, intimacy, and emotional truth..." to tell a story. In this course, we will discuss the umbrella term of memoir, conventional and unconventional structures, and practice building our own, unique voice through writing prompts, assignments, and a final portfolio of creative non-fiction work. This is an inclusive course open to all students, from beginning to advanced level. As a hybrid course, learning will be in person, synchronous online via zoom, and asynchronous via Canvas.