Memoir as a genre borrows many of its narrative techniques from fiction, and—like fiction—many memoirs are character-driven. But when we turn ourselves into the protagonists of our life stories, our work becomes shaped by the simple character arc: who we were, what problem(s) we faced, and how we changed or overcame. This kind of narrative resolution can feel false or forced to both reader and writer. In this class, we’ll be looking at contemporary memoirists whose books are driven by other narrative techniques like structure, form, and language. We will look at works by Carmen Maria Machado, Daisy Hernández, Jordan Abel, and more.
