Dear class,

Unfortunately, I have had to cancel class Feb. 22 due to being sick. Please note the following information for next week’s class on Feb. 29, including additional readings:

Next week, we will have our first workshop. Be sure to have all critique sheets completed with copies to turn in to each writer and to Julia for grading.

Be sure this week’s reading is completed: 

• Tell It Slant: Chapter 14: “The Writing Process and Revision
• Touchstone Anthology, David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster,” page 525.

In addition, read for class:

• Tell it Slant: Read Part 1, Chapters 6, “Gathering the Threads of History,” Chapter 7, “Writing the Larger World,” Chapter 8, “Using Research to Expand Your Perspective”

“Fourth State of Matter” by Joann Beard (Touchstone Anthology, page 1)

We will have significant class discussion on these essays and possibly a reading quiz. Be sure to come to class with observations and questions about both.

Email julia.goldberg@santafeuniversity.edu with any questions

First drafts of your memoir pieces for workshop are due in class. Please follow these instructions:

• Bring FIVE copies of your first draft memoir. This should be at least five pages long. You will be working in small groups for this first workshop, and also turning in a copy to me for critique.

• Be sure your manuscripts are clean of errors and double-spaced. Do not wait until the last minute to make your copies. Last-minute issues with printing or copying will not be accepted as an excuse for late manuscripts.

• Anyone who misses workshop will not have the opportunity to make it up, nor receive credit for the assignment.

• The following week (Feb. 22), you will be both workshopping and have critiques due to Julia and your peers. Workshop critique sheets and workshop process will be reviewed in class.

Read for class:

1. Tell It Slant, Part 3, Honing Your Craft, Chapter 12: “The Particular Challenges of Creative Nonfiction.”
2. “Sorry” by Lee Martin, Touchstone Anthology and be prepared to discuss the essay.
3. “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character” by Phillip Lopate (handout)

• In-class: In addition to distributing your manuscripts, we will have an in-class critical writing assignment to assess your synthesis of all the materials we have read and discussed so far.  The in-class writing assignment will be open-book and I will expect you to cite materials as needed for the assignment. The assignment will be graded for:

• understanding and articulation of the issues related to memoir and creative nonfiction

• critical synthesis of the essays we have read so far from both Tell It Slant, Touchstone and online readings

• proper grammar and writing structure

Please remember that you can also review class presentations here.

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