Michel de Montaigne said, “We each have within ourselves the entire human condition.”  Hence, the appeal of memoir and the personal essay:  When writers speak of their most individual experiences, they speak to us of our own.  

Referred to as the personal essay, autobiography, or creative nonfiction, the tradition of memoir is as old as the written word itself—and, in fact, may have inspired the invention of the written word. What more primal instinct might there be than the impulse to express and explore the self, to reveal, to reconsider, to confess, to make sense of one's mind and life experiences—or to seek out such words to read in order to better understand ourselves? There are few things more exciting than to be pulled aside by someone and to be asked, “Can I confess something to you?”  

This semester, we will read and discuss works by Phillip Lopate, Claudia Rankine, David Sedaris, Maggie Nelson, and more. You will have the opportunity to practice the art of memoir and the personal essay yourself in a series of short papers about yourself. There will be some opportunity, additionally (if you’re interested), to write lyric poetry—which might be considered the parent of the essay. You'll also be expected to read and respond to the workshopped material of your fellow-writers.

It’s my goal to show you, through this course of study, how to become a serious writer by developing “the habit of art,” and the many reasons why it’s worthwhile to do so.  If you are ambitious this semester, you will have, by the end of it, a strong portfolio of writing—impressive not just in quantity but in overall sophistication and complexity. You will know a great deal about the craft you’ve studied, and your writing will reflect this. If you are conscientious about your commitment to our class, we will also have formed an interesting community together—a community full of personality, humor, diverse life experience, and (most importantly) a lot of passion.