Class

2025 Year-Long Memoir Writing Project with Carolyn Holbrook—Winter Online Cohort

Everyone leads a life that is important enough to write about. Some of you have known for a while that you want to write about your unique life or a specific time in your life, or perhaps a continuous theme in your life. Some of you simply have an idea that you want to write but may not be sure what you want to say, or may be hitting blocks when you sit down to write, or you may have a draft that isn’t working in certain parts. Perhaps you're unsure about how to polish your manuscript and feel truly confident that it's ready to pursue publication. You want to know that your memoir is the best you can make it.

Although we will focus on memoir, writers who work in other creative nonfiction genres such as personal essay, travelogue, nature writing, or narrative journalism, are also welcome. Our inspiration will be your perspective and your questions about your experience, your world, and the larger world around you. The class will combine lecture, discussion, reading, writing exercises, peer workshop and suggestions for revision.

One year is plenty of time to write a working draft of your memoir. Throughout the year we will visit and revisit what we need to know about how to begin your memoir, how to keep it moving from chapter to chapter, how to end it, and what to do with it once you’ve finished. Through reading, writing, discussion, workshopping and revising, we will study the many aspects of the craft of memoir writing: voice, setting, tone, dialogue, scene and summary, revision, editing and getting your book out into the world.

We will also meet authors, publishers and literary agents, and will develop the resources and relationships to move ahead with a writing life once the course is finished. At the end of the year, you will be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to pitch to editors and pursue publication.

We will meet via Zoom for all cohort meetings for the entire year. Visiting writers and publishing professionals will be revealed soon! Please consider registering for this option if you are not local to the Twin Cities, or you'd simply prefer the convenience of never having to leave your home or favorite coffee shop while working on your novel project. Log-in information for your weekly meetings will be communicated via your confirmation email.

One-on-one mentor meetings with Carolyn Holbrook will be held over the course of the year, live online via Zoom. These include one introductory meeting before the program kicks off in January, and one manuscript consultation session with Carolyn after the program concludes (and you submit your final manuscript) in December, 2025.

Your program orientation meeting is scheduled to take place Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at 6pm via Zoom.

Your final public reading will be online on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at 7pm. Log-in information for orientation and final reading will be communicated via confirmation email.