Read:

Tell it Slant: Read Part 3, Honing Your Craft, Chapters: 13, 14, 15

Read William Zinsser’s “How to Write a Memoir.”

Read excerpt of “Gun, Needle, Spoon” by Patrick O’Neil

Read Susanne Roberts, “The Same Story” (winner of Creative Nonfiction writing competition)

Read “Black Swans” by Lauren Slater, Touchstone Anthology, p. 484 and “Somehow Form a Family” by Tony Earley, Touchstone, p. 167

Remember to read critically both for content and for the techniques we’ve been discussing and be prepared to discuss in class.

Read “Notes on Frey” by Daniel Nester (handout provided)

Review for background original Smoking Gun article on James Frey

Bring to class: First drafts of memoir pieces. Remember this is a first draft! You are not expected to be finished, but must bring at least three to four full pages of typed writing. These can be based on the in-class exercise or can be entirely new.

We will have an in-class exercise to further develop these drafts for distribution the following week in advance of our first workshop.

In class we will also have:

Intro to Critique Process and Critique Sheets

Formation of Critique Groups for Memoir Pieces