A profile is a portrait painted in words, with the writer bringing the subject to life on the page. A close friend or relative has an especially subjective lens, with a unique experience of the person in question. (For instance, a young man’s mother and fraternity brother would depict him differently, and rightly so.) Some profiles, while focused outward, are considered memoirs as well, with the narrator also coming across vividly through her particular relationship with and memories of the subject, her distinct view and voice. The main objective of this course is to write first-person profiles/memoirs that we’ll share and workshop together — mining our memories, researching and interviewing, and exploring the concept of multiple truths. We’ll also read and discuss excerpts from Lillian Ross’s Portrait of Hemingway; Johanna Adorjan’s An Exclusive Love, about her grandparents’ suicide pact; and Fourth and Mom, by Jean Masthay — a long-time and beloved ISWF student, who wrote a memoir about being the mother of a pro football player whose team won the Super Bowl. No writing to submit in advance, but please come with a certain person in mind as the subject of your memoiristic profile — Whose character is compelling to you? Whose story is, in a way, also your story? Who resonates with you, such that in revealing them you also reveal yourself? Inquisitive wordsmiths at all levels of writing experience are welcome. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.

In an effort to get over ourselves as personal storytellers, we’ll strive in this intensive course to make every sentence, indeed every word, count. What must be there for a reader to get a sense of us? What’s that inciting incident, organizing principle, heat-seeking moment, that could drive our memoirs? We’ll spend Saturday talking about how we all have many memoirs in us, but each needs to be a specific slice—the statue within the block of marble, the sculpture within the lump of clay, the story-within-the-story. What’s this particular memoir about? (“Me” or “My life” aren’t precise enough answers.) We’ll also engage in in-class writing exercises, to see what memories rise to the surface as crucial memoir kernels, and discuss excerpts from published works—by economical personal writers such as Jeannette Walls and Karen Schneider—to energize and inspire us. Overnight, we’ll write our “life stories” in 500 words, allowing the narrower story to start taking shape. Sunday, we’ll share our pieces and workshop them on the spot. Nothing to submit in advance. Open-minded introspectives with a desire to communicate, at all levels of writing experience, are welcome. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.