Memoir Workshop

Memoir is more than a record of events: it’s the art of shaping meaning from memory. Whether you're writing about family, identity, work, love, justice or the natural world, memoir allows you to explore why your story matters and how personal experience can speak to universal themes.

In this immersive one-day workshop, your writing will be at the centre of what we do. Through guided writing, reflective practice, and tutor-led discussion, you’ll generate new material and discover how memory, emotion, and form come together on the page. This is a space to begin turning lived experience into art.

One fully funded place is available at each Memoir Workshop for a young adult (18-25) from an underrepresented background and/or facing financial difficulty. To apply for this, please contact Holly.Rigby.2@citystgeorges.ac.uk outlining why you'd like to attend.

Please apply no less than two weeks before each start date.

Structure of the Day:

10:30 - Introductions + intention-setting

11:00 - Guided writing practise

13:00 - Reflective circle

13:30 - Lunch

14:00 - Memoir craft workshop

16:30 - Workshop close

Who is it for?

Whether you’re starting to explore your story or deep in a draft, this workshop is ideal for anyone seeking to generate new material and reconnect with your creative instincts. All levels of experience are welcome.

Timetable

The Memoir Workshop will take place on a Friday at our Northampton Square campus in central London between 10.30am-16.30pm.

City St George’s Short Courses follow the academic year, delivering courses over three terms. These include:

• Autumn - October
• Spring - January
• Summer - June

Benefits

• Learn from a professional memoir writer.
• Taught in small groups at our University campus in central London
• Awarded a City St George’s, University of London certificate

What will I learn?

• New writing sparked in class
• A clearer understanding of memoir as both art and craft
• A deeper sense of the story only you can tell

What will we explore?

• How to find the heart of your story
• Voice, tone and honesty on the page
• Writing difficult material: ethics, distance, and trust
• Exploring memory through structure: fragments, vignettes, timelines
• Taking creative risks: experimental and hybrid approaches

A one-day interactive workshop. Written exercises in class. Q&As with the tutor throughout..

The workshop is most suitable for those new to memoir writing. More experienced writers are also welcome, though should be aware this is an introductory course.

Bring paper and pen and expect to take notes and bring ideas and questions too.

English requirements

The memoir writing course would best suit writers fluent in English.

Memoir Writing Craft

The Making of a Story, Alice LaPlante

The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick

The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Social Justice

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

This Is Going To Hurt, Adam Kay

Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich

Cut Short, Ciaran Thapar

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein

Free, Lea Ypi

Family Memoir

Why be Happy When you Could be Normal, Jeanette Winterson, Penguin

Educated, Tara Westover, Windmill Books

History of a Suicide, Jill Bialowsky, Washington Sq Press

My Name is Why, Lemn Sissay, Canongate

Love and Relationships

Love in Exile, Shon Faye, Penguin

Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton, Penguin

Arrangements in Blue, Amy Key, Penguin

Experimental Forms

In the Dreamhouse, Carmen Maria Machado, Graywolf Press

The Argonaughts, Maggie Nelson, Graywolf Press

The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch, Hawthorn Books

I Am, I Am, I Am, Maggie O'Farrell, Penguin

Nature Inspired

Wintering, Katherine May, Rider

The Outrun, Amy Liptrot, Canongate

A Flat Place, Noreed Masud, Penguin

Wild, Cheryl Strayed, Atlantic