Memoir Writing Project

Memoir Writing Project

Online cohort led by Kelly Sundberg

Wednesdays on Zoom | Starting January 28, 2026 | 6-9 p.m.

Memoir in a Year.

Memoir is many things, but it should not be the stale, academic writing you’ve been taught in traditional composition courses. Contemporary memoirs often break genre boundaries by incorporating visual or poetic elements.  Although not fiction, memoir can incorporate fictional aspects of storytelling by utilizing dialogue and narrative.  Memoirs are true, but that truth should be universal, which means it strives to illuminate the human condition by finding the meaning in everyday interactions. You don’t need to have lived an exciting life to write a beautiful memoir, but you will need to access an exciting (or new) perspective. 
This class is for people at all stages of the memoir writing process. You may have a completed draft already, but you don’t feel that it’s ready to send to agents or publishers yet. Maybe you’ve been wanting to start a memoir, but you don’t know where to start. Maybe you’re struggling with writer’s block or low confidence. Regardless of where you are in the process, this class will meet you where you’re at and help you to complete a draft of the memoir that you were meant to write. Everyone leads a life that is important enough to write about. Memoirs can be about a unique time in your life or specific incidents, but they may also explore themes that have recurred throughout a lifetime. Whatever story you’re telling, this workshop will help you learn the elements of craft that make your story vivid, compelling, interesting, and beautiful. 

Although we will focus on memoir, writers who work in other creative nonfiction genres such as personal essay, travelog, nature writing, or narrative journalism, are also welcome. Writers should always write what they are curious about, and our inspiration in this workshop will be that curiosity. What is it about your worldview that sees things in a unique way? How has your curiosity about your own experiences or the experiences of others shaped your life? And how can your own curiosity help others to deepen and explore theirs? 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, particularly within the framework of a supportive teaching mentor and cohort. Throughout the year, the workshop will look at the nuts and bolts of your memoir—the introduction, narrative arc, scene setting, dialogue, voice, revision, and editing—and you can expect to grow and evolve as a thinker and writer. Writing often happens in isolation, but community is also so important, and in addition to growing as thinkers and writers, class participants will build a supportive writing community.  

We will also discuss the publishing industry, as well as strategies for finding agents and editors. We will focus on tools such as writing a strong query letter and identifying whether a press is right for you. In the process, you will also meet authors, publishers, and literary agents in order to help you develop the resources and relationships that you need to move forward in your writing career. At the end of the year, in addition to having a complete draft of your memoir, you will also have a completed query letter and pitch for agents and editors.  

We will meet via Zoom for all cohort meetings for the entire year, so regardless of where you live, this class is accessible to you. Log-in information for your weekly meetings will be communicated via your confirmation email.