“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison

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“What would you write if you weren’t afraid?” Mary Karr

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While an autobiography tends to tell the story of one’s whole life, a memoir hones in on one moment, time or place. It is specific, and in that specificity there is a lot of room: a single day, a single hour, that afternoon you turned eleven and everything changed, that rainy season you spent heartbroken in Mexico City, etc. (You definitely don’t need to know yet what you will write about.) 

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What actually goes into writing a compelling memoir? 

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In this class we will answer that question together through reading excellent excerpts from memoirists such as Pam Houston, Annie Dillard, Augusten Burroughs, Toni Jensen, Elissa Washuta and others as well as through exercises to begin to determine what parts of our lives we will write about and how. 

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In this four-week class, we will take the raw stuff of our lives and build a container to hold it. You will be expected to share one to two pages of your writing each week, and give feedback to others, using the Amherst Method for Poets and Writers (which is an excellent resource we will go over in class.)

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There will be some reading/writing homework each week, and you will receive personalized weekly feedback from the instructor as well. This class is designed for beginner or intermediate writers. Please email info@seawolfbooks.com with any questions about the class.

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Class instructor: Charlie J. Stephens.

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Bio: Charlie J. Stephens is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race writer from the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Salem, Oregon, Charlie has lived all over the U.S. as a bike messenger, wilderness guide, high school English teacher, and seasonal shark diver (for educational purposes only.) Resident of Port Orford on the southern Oregon coast, they are the owner of Sea Wolf Books & Community Writing Center. Charlie’s short fiction has appeared in Electric Literature, Best Small Fictions Anthology, New World Writing, Original Plumbing/Feminist Press, and elsewhere. Their debut novel, “A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest” was published by Torrey House Press in April 2024. More at www.charliejstephenswriting.com.