The fabric of the past is never clean, pressed, neatly folded and stacked chronologically. The past comes to us in bits and tatters, ragged ends finished off by imagination, and conveyed in a unique narrative voice. Remembrance and re-creation are allied when the writer puts the past on the page. Memoir uses the tools of fiction to give narrative structure to the past, but the genre has its own special rewards and responsibilities.

This non-credit program will stress elements of the writing process: creating, expanding, editing, and connecting. Writing utilizes artistic skills, and editorial techniques, the heart as well as the mind. Each term there will be prompts to spark writing, and insight, exercises to develop narrative voice, and broaden the writer’s palette of possibility. Additionally students will be asked to read selected modern memoirs, looking at various ways to tell personal stories.

There are no prerequisites for this program. You need not be an experienced writer, but you should be a serious writer.

During this three term program you will:

• Learn from award-winning author Laura Kalpakian.
• Develop and enrich your writing in a supportive environment.
• Expand your abilities, your editing skills and your palette of possibilities.
• Become a more sophisticated reader as well as a more accomplished writer.

At the end of the certificate program, you will have in hand several fully developed and edited essays or chapters suitable for publication, and a piece to present at Village Books.