Mary Morris

People write memoirs when they’ve had a great acting career or been president of a large country. We read these for their historic/cultural value; our interest is in the story of their lives. But another kind of memoir is trying to tell another kind of truth. These are more personal stories of dysfunction, addiction, social injustice, overcoming the odds. They take us on alcoholic journeys and into scary families and scarier societies and souls. In this workshop, we attempt to uncover this kind of truth. But this isn't a class in autobiography. It is a class in telling a story. What differentiates these stories from other tales of grief and woe is that they are, quite simply, well-told. We will read memoirs by authors such as James Baldwin, Kathryn Harrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nick Flynn, Maggie Nelson, Michael Ondaatje, and Jeanette Taylor—and attempt to write one of our own. The emphasis will be on how to tell our stories. This workshop is best for those who have had some experience in creative nonfiction, but that is not required.

From Edgar Allan Poe to Sandra Cisneros and Tim O’Brien, writers have been engaged in the art of writing stories that weave and interconnect in interesting ways. And, in some cases, these might become a novel told in stories. Writers have found ways to link their stories, whether through THEME as in Poe or, more recently, Dan Chaon’s Among the Missing or Joan Silber’s Ideas of Heaven; through PLACE as in James Joyce’s Dubliners or Sandra Cisernos’ House on Mango Street; through CHARACTERS as in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried or Susan Minot’s Monkeys; or, finally, through an INCIDENT that links them as in Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake, Russell Banks’ The Sweet Hereafter, or Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. This workshop will focus on the writing of stories that are connected in one of these various ways. We will read from connected collections. Exercises will be created in order to help students mine their own material in order to create small collections of narratives with similar preoccupations, terrains, or people. Each student will produce his/her own collection of 10-12 linked stories during the yearlong course. We will definitely learn the craft of the short story, and there will be many exercises and prompts to help the student who may be less familiar with this genre; but the focus will be on finding your project and then figuring out how to link the stories. Though not required, it is best if a student has previously worked in the genre.

There are memoirs that people write when they’ve had a great acting career or been president of a large country. We read these for their historic/cultural value. Our interest is in the story of their lives. But another kind of memoir tries to tell another kind of truth. Those are more personal stories of dysfunction, addiction, oppression, and overcoming the odds. These stories may take us on alcoholic journeys or tales of abuse into scary families and scarier souls. They can also be funny, uplifting, and redemptive. In this workshop, we attempt to uncover that kind of truth; but this isn’t a class in autobiography; rather, it’s a class in telling a story. What differentiates these stories from other tales of grief and woe is that they are, quite simply, well-told. We will read memoirs by authors such as Michael Ondaatje, Kathryn Harrison, Garred Conley, Cathy Hong Park, David Sedaris, Nick Flynn, James McBride, and Jeanette Taylor, as well as memoirs by recent Sarah Lawrence graduates such as T Kira Madden and Anna Qu. And we will attempt to write one of our own. The emphasis will be on how to tell our stories. Exercises and prompts will be designed to help jumpstart you.

The late John Gardner once said that there are only two plots in all of literature: You go on a journey, or the stranger comes to town. In this workshop, students will be asked to go on a “journey”—to experience the world and to read and write stories that involve travel. This may mean voluntary travel in the physical world such as a family vacation, a camping trip with friends, or study abroad. It could also mean time travel or flights of fancy. Or it might mean enforced travel—stories of immigration, exile, and even slave narratives. Even memory is a kind of journey, isn’t it? You will go on field trips, wander the city, get lost, eavesdrop, talk to strangers. At the same time you’ll travel in your own imaginations. Journaling will be a large component. You will keep handwritten journals that could also be visual journals, including collage, drawing, scrapbooking. The goal will be to open your eyes to the world and to the stories that exist everywhere and learn how to tell them. We will read works such as Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find, Paul Bowles’ A Distant Episode, Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever, Haruki Murakami’s UFO in Kushiro, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, to name a few. And remember: Travel doesn’t necessarily mean seeing new places; it means seeing with fresh eyes. There will be weekly conferences for the first six weeks and biweekly conferences thereafter, at the discretion of the instructor.

The novelist John Berger once said that writers draw their material from three sources: experience, witness, and imagination. The goal of this mixed-genre workshop—which will focus on the short story, personal essay, and memoir—is for the emerging writer to find and develop his or her own subject matter. Students will be asked to explore the raw material of their lives, adding the mix of witness (what we have seen or been told) and what we invent. We begin with an assignment, based on Joe Brainard’s book, I Remember. Students make their own lists of memories of childhood and adolescence. We will turn these lists into anecdotes and scenes and eventually into stories. Students will also begin a list called “I Imagine” and, in this assignment, we will explore family lore, stories they have heard from others, or perhaps even draw from newspaper accounts. We will look at writers who have delved into their own subject matter in both fiction and nonfiction—such as James Baldwin, Sandra Cisneros, Tim O’Brien, Virginia Woolf, Paul Auster, and Lorrie Moore—and discuss the various issues posed in each form. Students will be given assignments that are intended to evoke subject matter in both genres; for example, a piece of family lore might become a short essay or a work of fiction. Students will write short stories, essays, and memoir and learn to move freely from one genre to the next, attempting to reimagine their material in different forms. The emphasis will be on voice and narrative, both of which are essential for good fiction and nonfiction. We will also spend a good deal of time learning what it means to write a scene. This is a class for any student who wants to explore the material that becomes the subject matter of stories.

The novelist John Berger once said that writers draw their material from three sources: experience, witness, and imagination. The goal of this mixed-genre workshop, which will focus on the short story, personal essay, and memoir, is for the emerging writer to find and develop his or her own subject matter. Students will be asked to explore the raw material of their lives, adding the mix of witness (what we have seen or been told) and what we invent. We begin with an assignment, based on Joe Brainard’s book, I Remember. Students make their own lists of memories of childhood and adolescence. We will turn these lists into anecdotes and scenes and eventually into stories. Students will also begin a list called “I Imagine” and, in this assignment, we will explore family lore and stories they have heard from others or perhaps even drawing from newspaper accounts. We will look at writers who have delved into their own subject matter in both fiction and nonfiction—such as James Baldwin, Sandra Cisneros, Tim O’Brien, Virginia Woolf, Paul Auster, and Lorrie Moore—and discuss the various issues posed in each form. Students will be given assignments intended to evoke subject matter in both genres; for example, a piece of family lore might become a short essay or a work of fiction. Students will write short stories, essays, and memoir and learn to move freely from one genre to the next, attempting to reimagine their material in different forms. The emphasis will be on voice and narrative, both of which are essential for good fiction and nonfiction. We will also spend a good deal of time learning what it means to write a scene. This is a class for any student who wants to explore the material that becomes the subject matter of stories.