Essay 3: Memoir Essay

Memoir done right is an art, a made thing...writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist...You're making an experience for a reader, a show that conjures your past--inside & out--with enough lucidity that a reader gets way more than just the brief flash of titillation...And how can [a good writer] do that? A good writer can conjure a landscape and its peoples to live inside you, and the best writers make you feel they've disclosed their soft underbellies. Seeing someone naked thrills us a little.--The Art of Memoir

YOUR ASSIGNMENT
For this assignment, I want you to write about a personal experience that you have always wondered about. Whether traumatic or inspirational, fantastic or mundane, recent or in the past, dig deep into this one personal experience and recreate it for readers in a meaningful, coherent, thought-provoking manner. Remember, as Mary Karr states, that the memoirist's aim is not the ultimate truth, but rather to:
 "...create such a personal interior space, with memories pieced together, that the reader never loses sight of the [memoir's] tentative nature...[The memoir] is the speaker's truth alone." (16)
As you draft and revise your essay, also consider Dinty Moore's statement about writing the memoir essay: 
"One might write memoir and not essay." (28)
In other words, memoir is not just about retelling a particular experience; anyone can do that. The memoir essay requires EMBELLISHMENT & REFLECTIONAnd how do you go about embellishing your memoir essay, you ask? You do this by employng the elements of creative nonfiction--sensory details (what Karr calls carnality in Ch. 6))descriptive and figurative languageconflict (both internal and external)characterization and dialogueresearch (where applicable); and verisimilitude through a distinct voice (Karr, Ch. 4). Most importantly, don't forget that your essay should be about reflection--the lessons you learned (or did not learn) as you lived your experience.

Finally, Mary Karr tells us the following in her Preface: 
“Writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist” (xx). 
This means that your memoir essay will inevitably get personal, but as stated in class, you should only share what you feel comfortable sharing with your classmates. Feel free to come and talk to me during office hours if you have any questions about the content of your memoir essay.

YOUR ESSAY GUIDELINES
  • In your Google Drive shared folder, create a Google Doc and name the file like this: MemoirEssay-YourFullName (ex. MemoirEssay-DonaldTrump)
  • Your Memoir Essay should:
    • include include your full name, class information, and date (top left corner of first page only); page numbers (top right); and a creative title (centered). Your entire essay should be double-spaced as well.
    • revolve around one experience only
    • strive to render your experiences through the elements of creative nonfiction mentioned above
    • include no more than 2 images, if desired
      • images should be centered and in between separate paragraphs; also, all images included in your essay should be owned by you (do not download images from the web)
  • We will workshop drafts of your essay in class on Tuesday, 11/21, AND Tuesday, 12/5, so plan accordingly.
  • The final draft of your food essay is due with your final portfolio and should total 6-8 double-spaced pages.