Time Travel: Structure in Memoir with Sarah Perry

Time Travel: Structure in Memoir with Sarah Perry quantity

Add to cart

Description

Editor's Note

Time Travel: Structure in Memoir with Sarah Perry
Sunday, December 13
12 PM – 3 PM PT / 3 PM – 6 PM ET
Online

In memoir, the writer takes the reader on a journey through the past, illuminated by the present. The best memoirs include two selves: a protagonist who lives in the past, and a present-day narrator who leads the reader confidently through the events depicted, delivering insights and asking questions. But how do we switch from one mode to the other? And how do we figure out how to arrange these events, feelings, and thoughts? Life is messy, unstructured, and continuous: how do we shape it into a thoughtful narrative?

Students will examine excerpts from the work of several writers who expertly travel between past and present to guide and enlighten the reader. Students will develop a vocabulary for describing these shifts in time and perspective, and will try out these techniques in several writing exercises. The class will then examine the overall structure of several books, considering the narrative and emotional consequences of each. We’ll also talk about how to use nonlinear chronology to ethically negotiate issues of truth and gaps in memory, and how the structure of a story might trace the shape of memory itself.

Students will leave the session with a packet of writing exercises and a document tracing the structures of dozens of contemporary memoirs.

Scholarship
We have one scholarship available for this intensive. Scholarships are awarded via a random lottery drawn at least a week before the intensive. Please submit your name here to enter.

BIO: Sarah Perry is the author of the memoir After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search and the essay collection Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover. She’s received fellowships from the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, The Studios of Key West, VCCA, and elsewhere. She has twice served as the McGee Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Davidson College, previously taught at the University of North Texas, and now teaches in the graduate program at Colorado State University.