Online | Nonfiction | Memoir | Workshop

6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Memoir 101

“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” —Maya Angelou

At the heart of our lives are our stories. Stories of times we were lost or found, broken or whole, asleep or awake. The most haunting memoirs aren’t just autobiographies. Instead, they pivot on a subject that mystifies and confounds the writer, about which they cannot quite make up their mind.

In this six-week workshop, we'll mine our lives for material and work through a series of generative prompts designed to turn rich, messy fragments into surprising and powerful prose. We’ll steal liberally from the sensory world of poetry, the narrative world of fiction, and the fact-driven world of journalism, even as we plumb the depths of interior life. Each participant will have the opportunity to workshop two memoir excerpts while also generating new work. Along the way, we’ll read and discuss pieces by writers such as Claudia Rankine, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, and Alexander Chee, who can teach us how to build a strong narrative arc, write vivid scenes, and prioritize the details and images that make prose come alive.

All levels of experience are welcome, but this course will be particularly helpful for writers who are in the earliest stages of a memoir project. 

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

- A community of peers embarking on similar projects

- Thoughtful feedback from the instructor and your peers on two excerpts from your memoir-in-progress

- Over a dozen prompts designed to help you generate new material when you’re feeling stuck

- A revision protocol that opens up numerous possibilities for strengthening your draft

- A sample query letter and a book proposal template

- A letter from the instructor offering feedback, possible directions for revision, and a personalized reading list

- A 30-minute, one-on-one virtual conference with the instructor to go over your questions and identify goals for the next six months

COURSE SKELETON:

Week 1: Committing to the sensory world.

Week 2: Making it new.

Week 3: Research as creative process.

Week 4: Leveraging structure.

Week 5: Paths to publication.

Week 6: Finding your literary community.   

Jessica Wilbanks

Jessica Wilbanks is the author of When I Spoke in Tongues. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Longreads, Ninth Letter, and The Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses 2014 Edition. She lives in Houston, where she’s working on a novel and teaching writing workshops. 

Testimonials

"Jessica was excellent . . she was amazingly empathetic and encouraging while at the same time very genuine."

former student

"Jessica is an excellent instructor. She gives encouraging feedback, stays on schedule, and references relevant pieces of other authors. Ultimately, she knows what she's talking about and knows enough to share that neither her opinions or perspectives are absolute. I can't say enough about how much I appreciate her."

former student

"Jessica Wilbanks is one of our finest instructors . . rarely do we see the situation in which all respondents mark that they were “Extremely Satisfied” with their workshop or that 100% of respondents say they would recommend the workshop to another writer, but Jessica’s workshops achieve this. I enthusiastically and wholeheartedly recommend Jessica Wilbanks as a memoir and creative nonfiction instructor . . . Our writing students love her because she brings to the workshop room a unique enthusiasm and an ability to nourish not just their writer minds, but their hearts and souls."

Elizabeth White-Olson Executive Director, Writespace

"[The essay] "Ghost Language" is a searching, visceral examination of faith and its negative margins--its nerve endings are sharply attuned to the proximate world--the song of its particulars--and the yearning for something less proximate, something divine. It's a piercing examination of memory and longing--the vexed terms by which one can be haunted by one's own lost faith."

Leslie Jamison author of THE RECOVERING: INTOXICATION AND ITS AFTERMATH

“Fever dream—this is how Jessica Wilbanks describes the first time she spoke in tongues . . . which is as good a phrase as any to describe the experience of reading this lucid and hallucinatory memoir. The questions that float through these pages—What is belief? What is faith?—spoke to me in ways I hadn’t expected, or even knew to ask, and revealed a world running alongside our own, which we mock or ignore at our peril.”

Nick Flynn author of ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY

“Jessica Wilbanks’s memoir of faith’s loss and her efforts to comprehend its significance is no less than an illuminating exploration of how to live meaningfully. Beautifully written, WHEN I SPOKE IN TONGUES is compelling, honest, and memorable.”

Claire Messud author of THE BURNING GIRL