As writers in the memoir classes I lead master the art of writing about their lives, they find themselves with a new challenge: assembling finished stories into book form. Many of my students have met that challenge. Some collected their essays into self-published books for their families, a few worked with an online company called […]

Warning: Teaching memoir-writing is a gateway drug. I started leading a class 15 years ago. By 2011 I was leading two a week. In 2012, it grew to three. I’m up to five now. How do I keep up the habit? By taking breaks in-between the six-week sessions. I don’t edit or give writing prompts […]

Here’s part two of my post encouraging dads to write their memoirs. The dad I mentioned at the beginning of that post has more than one daughter — he has two. Both live in California, and when one gifted him with my memoir-writing class she made it clear to her father that he would be […]

The email came just before Father’s Day last year. A young woman wanted to know how to sign her dad up for my memoir-writing class. The request made me a little nervous. What if her dad didn’t like to write? Didn’t want to write? Couldn’t write? It’d be a gift, she said. A gift for […]

Every once in a while a writer in my memoir classes will suggest a writing prompt for me to consider. I like that — their ideas clue me in on what they’re especially interested in writing. Only problem? Too often their prompts are too specific. A prompt one of my writers suggested during our recent […]