• Write one or two short memoirs or begin a book
• Lectures on basics of memoir craft
• Writing exercises
• Present work for critique (two times)

Memoir I is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals.

View a course syllabus.

• Write or refine one/two short memoirs or begin or work toward completion of a book
• Lectures that expand on basics of memoir craft
• Writing exercises
• Present work for in-depth critique (two times)

The Memoir Writing Master Class provides students deeply immersed in the writing of a book-length memoir (or shorter piece) with the opportunity to work with a published memoirist and other dedicated writers in a small class setting. The class is devoted almost exclusively to workshopping — the reading, critiquing, and discussion of student novels. Every student will be allowed to workshop approximately 150 pages of a book. (Students may also work on short pieces, but may only submit one piece at a time.) Class size is limited to six students, all of whom have done a substantial amount of work on a memoir project and are experienced in the workshop process.

Prerequisites: The following are prerequisites for students who take Memoir Writing Master Class:

• A complete (or nearly complete) draft of a book-length memoir or short memoir
• Completion of two terms of Gotham’s Memoir II or Fiction II or Novel II courses
• Acceptance by Gotham based on a sample of the student’s work

To be accepted into the Memoir Writing Master Class all students must first submit a sample of their work.

Your writing sample may be no more than ten pages. Ideally, the sample will be the first ten pages of the memoir you plan to workshop in the Memoir Writing Master Class. If that material is not yet available, you may submit ten pages from another work of your own.

A Note on the Class: All students in this class will be expected to read and critique segments of one hundred pages or more per week. The success of the class depends on the full participation of all students. Students should only take this course if they are confident they can handle the weekly load of reading and critiquing. To make this more manageable, students should have already done most or all of the work on the memoir that they plan to present to the class before class begins

A Note to Applicants: The Master Classes often get far more applicants than can be accepted, and so talented and dedicated students are often not accepted. If you are not accepted in a Master Class, you are welcome to apply another time, and you may well be accepted then.