Benefits of Teaching Memoir: Their Work in Print

Writers sign up for my memoir classes for all sorts of reasons. Many want to get their stories down on paper to leave for their families, some start off writing their own stories and continue coming to listen to classmates read theirs, and others want to see their essays published.

With that last group in mind, I gave writers an assignment to look over a handout I’d put together listing magazines and publications accepting short essays from readers. “Choose one of those publications,” I

The irrepressible Regan Burke, professional writer.

told them. “Read the submission guidelines first.” From there they could either find a 500-word essay they’d already written that was what that publication was looking for, or write a new 500-word essay that might qualify. Writers weren’t required to submit to a publication for the assignment, but I urged them to do so. “It’s kind of fun!”

At the next class, writers read essays out loud that had been submitted everywhere from “Lives” in the New York Times Magazine to the “Waterlines” feature in Adventure Kayak. Most are still waiting to hear back, but one writer has already had a piece published in The Loneliness Project, and another was paid for the essay she submitted to “Home Forum” in the Christian Science Monitor. From the entry on my handout:

Christian Science Monitor’s Home Forum section
looks for humorous and/or upbeat personal essays from 400 to 800 words.
https://www.csmonitor.com/About/Contributor-guidelines/Contributor-Guidelines-The-Home-Forum

Being paid for a piece of writing qualifies you as a professional,and today I am extremely proud to share the link to professional writer Regan Burke’s essay, Why I Talk to Dogs, as published in the December 12, 2018 edition of the Christian Science Monitor. The call out for the story is “Their tethered humans might think I’m crazy, but I can’t help it.” And the byline? It lists a writer from my memoir class as “Regan Burke, Correspondent.”

What fun this all is!