1. Introduction to Memoir
Writers Workshop
Introduction to Memoir

2. Life writing Memoir is a kind of LIFE WRITING
Life writing: the recording of selves, memories, experiences (yours or someone else’s)
many genres and practices: autobiography, biography, memoir, diaries, journals, letters, testimonies, personal essays, blogs, s, and so on

3. What is a Memoir? Nonfiction
A kind of autobiographical writing (writing about yourself)
Captures particular scenes of life and often a reflection on meaning (i.e., ‘so what?’)
It’s not about every single thing that ever happened to you (that’s autobiography)
There may be more room to experiment than in autobiography
More exterior than an autobiography: includes other people, events you’ve witnessed, your place in your culture
In the future, make a chart to note distinctions between memoir and autobiography

4. odds ‘n’ ends degrees of accuracy/truth?
what a memoir looks/sounds like
famous memoirs: Angela’s Ashes , A Million Little Pieces, Woman Warrior, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

5. To do!
Select an item from writing territories list – involving some kind of life story
write a mini-memoir
Title: Quickwrite #1
I will read excerpts of memoirs to you…