This 8-session workshop class explores the increasingly popular memoir genre for students who have completed Craft of Life Stories, or are at the beginning stages of their memoirs.

We’ll look at how memory is transformed into compelling writing and discuss the writing process and the decisions we make along the way.

We will be reading Writing the Memoir, by Judith Barrington, as well as excerpts from memoirs to study aspects of craft. A major focus will be workshopping student manuscripts. Students should expect to develop two short memoir manuscripts, and are encouraged to bring projects already in progress.

Meeting every other week will give us time to read and work on our writing.

Writer’s Roadmap This course is suited for those interested in telling stories from their lives. Graduates of Creative Writing I and Craft of Life Stories will especially benefit. If you’re not sure, just contact us at 773.477.7710 or email for more assistance.

Students interesting in continuing their work from this class may wish to re-take Writing Your Memoir in the spring, explore Freelance Writing or Personal Essay Workshop, or move forward to the Advanced Memoir Workshop.

About the Instructor: Annette Gendler is a creative nonfiction writer. Her work was most recently published in Natural Bridge, and is forthcoming in Literary Mama. Her essays have also appeared in Kaleidoscope, Bellevue Literary Review, Under the Sun, South Loop Review and on flashquake.com . She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. In addition to teaching memoir at StoryStudio, she works as an English instructor at Kaplan University and does PR/advertising work for her children’s school. She lives in Hyde Park with her husband and three children.