Six Sundays, 2:30-5 p.m: Oct. 10, Nov. 7, Dec. 5,  Jan. 9,  Feb. 6,  March 6 $335 members/$365 others San Francisco

Prerequisite: Kathleen’s 5-week Memoir Writing class or Alison Luterman’s 9-week Write from Real Life class (or an equivalent class, taken elsewhere)

Have you embarked on the writing of memoir and find you need some guidance and encouragement? Are you wondering about ways to craft a memoir that is indeed shapely, intense, fascinating…and publishable?  “The artful memoir isn’t easy to knock off,” says Kathleen McClung. “We need skill and nuance in narrating and musing on past events and feelings to make a cohesive whole. Memoirs that matter, that truly move readers, call for soul-searching and for mastery of essential literary elements—an engaging voice, vivid scenes and characters, a careful blend of action and reflection, a unifying thread/theme.”

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5 Saturdays, Nov. 13-Dec. 18 (skip Nov. 27), 2-4:30 p.m.
$185 members/$215 others San Francisco

Note: This is a beginner’s class. If you have already started a memoir and want guidance at an intermediate level, Kathleen also offers a  Memoir Writing “Continuation” class.

Memoir is not reserved only for the rich and famous. In fact, beautiful and haunting memoirs—books and essays—grow out of our ordinary lives, carefully observed. Both the distant past and the not-so-long ago can be mined, remembered and re-created skillfully in writing. This class is a guide to the mining and refining process. “The gold of memoir,” says instructor Kathleen McClung, “combines the gifts of a novelist—vivid characters and settings, lively and suspenseful narration—with a poet’s introspection and close attention to language.

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Hi Alison,

I understand what you’re saying about how hard it can be to take a class after you’ve been a teacher, and I’ve felt that in other classes, but not yours [Write from Real Life]. You are so totally in command of what you do, I never had any doubt that what you were talking about would be useful. And you are very good at analyzing students’ stories and seeing right away the big weaknesses and making suggestions for how students could get around those weaknesses. I could see the depth of your experience as a writer showing through in those skills, and it was really impressive. I can do that for papers about Japanese history, but not for personal essays. I was too busy listening and learning from your critiques to notice the time. Every class seemed to be over in about 10 minutes. Thanks!

Regards,
Rob

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Jane,

Maureen is a terrific memoir teacher. She’s quite intelligent, thoughtful about the writing and the experiences represented, and sensitive to each person in a very patient way. . . .She’s able to balance helpful directives/comments about writing in general along with specific comments to an individual writer. The class structure she uses has been very useful to me: using carefully chosen examples/excerpts from other writers (she’s very well read in this genre) to illustrate a particular way of writing memoir. She then assigns that approach for the following week. She’s also a very good writer herself. She’s also quite open about using her own experiences as examples, and she’s clearly had quite a range of them.

But the most important part to me has been her emphasis on emotional honesty, insight, and self-reflection as the connecting string flowing through memoir writing. That emphasis pushes me to more thoughtful writing. She doesn’t hesitate to point out when it’s not there or to emphathize when it is.

I wish the class were smaller so that I could get more time with her. On the other hand, there are a surprising number of very good writers in this group, raising the bar in a healthy way for everyone.

Best,
Sheryle Bolton

***

Hello,
I loved the memory to memoir class Nov 1st.

Maureen was a wonderful leader and the class was great combo of reading, writing and listening to others for idea exchange.

I found the group to be perfect size (13) for sharing and the studio conducive to supportive sharing.
Enjoyed lunch time at Atlas with group and hearing each person’s story.

Thanks so much!
Heather