The personal essay is a shape-shifting form: visually flexible, emotionally resonant, and endlessly adaptable in length and style. This course makes memoir writing approachable by showing how everyday experiences can become vivid, compelling narratives.

Class sessions combine brief craft discussions (voice, structure, tone), guided writing time, and collaborative workshopping in both small groups and the larger class. We’ll also explore contemporary nonfiction authors and platforms where short essays thrive, and consider how concise, powerful storytelling can better reach today’s attention-strapped readers.

By the end of the course, students will complete short autobiographical essays (around five hundred words each) that can serve as both standalone pieces or seeds for larger work.

Crafting Micro Memoirs | Led by Niloufar Talebi (Fee Waiver)