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Michelle Tea Memoir that Reads Like Fiction: Fall Non-Fiction December 11 to December 15, 2017 Number of Participants: 12 Price: $400 Format: 1 Week Asynchronous Workshop

Memoirist, novelist and poet Michelle Tea will advise on the creation of a memoir that has the cinematic feel and the singular voice of an immersive novel. Learn techniques to distance yourself from your own experience, face down fears, slaughter sentimentality, engage in ruthless honesty and create a version of yourself that is both truthful and larger than life. In addition to style and craft we will touch on the personal concerns that inevitably arise when a writer takes on the telling of their own story. You will leave this class will a firmer understanding of what your memoir needs to come alive and how to make it happen.

Students should come to class with a piece of approximately 2,500 words to be workshopped. Over the course of the week, they will receive feedback on their piece from Michelle and their peers. Michelle will also lead discussions about various aspects of writing memoir, based on daily blog posts and excerpts from work by Eileen Myles, Ariel Gore, Brontez Purnell, Margo Jefferson, Phoebe Robertson, Hilton Als and Lena Dunham. Class will conclude with one-on-one feedback from Michelle, communicated either by phone or Skype.

Biography

Michelle Tea is the author or editor of over twenty books, ranging from memoir to poetry to fiction to children's lit, and more. Her most recent work is Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My In/Fertility. The follow-up to her popular Modern Tarot, Modern Magic, will be published October 2024. Tea is the founder of Sister Spit, creator of Drag Queen Story Hour, and publisher of DOPAMINE Books, and holds honors from Lambda Literary, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, PEN/America and the Guggenheim Foundation.