Nonfiction
October 3-7, 2016
Open to All
Tiered Tuition
Reserve My Spot This offering is not currently available for registration. Please check back or email Jennifer Jean at jjean@fawc.org for any questions.
About the Offering
So you have a draft of a memoir, and now you want to shape your story into a compelling narrative. How do you do this without sacrificing the integrity of the story? Which details of your research and/or life should you include? How do you make art out of this mess of details? Our intensive class will examine several fine examples of uniquely structured memoirs, from classics to newer, multi-genre experimental works. We will also work on short exercises to jump-start our creative structuring processes. We will walk away from this class with a renewed sense of purpose and a refreshing sense of opportunity. Our takeaway: The memoir is limitless.
Though students do not need a full manuscript to enter the class, they should have a sense of story and/or a fair amount of research they would like to structure. At the end of the class, each student will receive an email from the instructor including a review of their work in the course and individualized strategies for moving forward with their memoir.
Materials Needed
No specific materials needed for this offering.
About the Instructor/Moderator
Garrard Conley
is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Boy Erased (Riverhead/Penguin 2016) and the novel All the World Beside (Riverhead/Penguin 2024), as well as the creator and co-producer of the podcast UnErased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America (Limina/Stitcher 2018). His work has been published by The New York Times, Oxford American, Time, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Conley is a graduate of Brooklyn College’s MFA program, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow in fiction. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University and on the nonfiction faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Accessibility Information
Their work is regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of over 60 museums. Over the past fifteen years, they have built a sustainable career as a visual artist and have extensive experience working with museums, galleries, universities and nonprofit organizations, publishers, and press outlets. In addition to their own creative work, they are passionate about sharing the professional knowledge they’ve acquired throughout their career with other artists.
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