Writing Workshops

On Memoir: Permission and the Courage to Create with Elissa Altman

$345

4 Sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Thursdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 8:00 pm EDT June 4 to June 25, 2026

Online via Zoom

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This writing workshop is now sold out. Please email [email protected] to join the waitlist—and become a member for early access to future programming.

How do we navigate the minefield of story ownership and permission when crafting a narrative that involves others—which it inevitably will? What makes a great memoir what it is, versus a simple recollection of experience or an information dump?

In this generative memoir workshop, I will explore the concepts of permission-to-tell, story ownership, and motivation in the writing of memoir and essay. Together, we will focus on separating the wheat from the chaff within the narrative, and learn how to find the kernel—the heart of the story that must be told—that teems with life, even at its most subdued. Through short readings, exercises, and the brief sharing of work, you will practice writing with intimacy and clarity, and learn to trust your right to tell the story that belongs to you. Short readings (distributed ahead of the first class meeting) will include Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Emily Bernard, and others.

Course Outline:

Week 1: The question of story ownership and the process of inquiry. Understanding the story you are trying to tell, and mining the narrative until you get to its kernel. What is the core of the story? How do issues of story ownership come into play for you personally? What are the risks? What is imaginary, and what is real? Short exercise (15 min, to be shared or not, depending on inclination and class size).
Week 2: Who is your narrator, what is motivating them, and what is their point of view? How vital are the secrets to the story as a whole? Must they be told—or are you writing from a place of revenge/sadness/rage/fury? How do you know? Discussion about understanding what happens when revenge writing drives the story, and how to avoid it. Short exercise (15 min, to be shared or not, depending on inclination and class size).
Week 3: Who are your “characters” and how must they cope with the question of permission and story ownership? Discussion about the use of negative space, how to tell/not tell, how to write into a place of ambiguity, and why you don’t have to tell your reader absolutely everything absolutely all of the time. Short exercise (15 min, to be shared or not, depending on inclination and class size).
Week 4: Voice and its impact on permission and the heart of the story. Staying within voice—or stepping out—and how it can be used to create narratively controlled intimacy that allows you to push the boundaries of permission. Discussion of time and tense, and how the changing of tense can short-circuit permission and story-ownership fears. Short exercise (15 min, to be shared or not, depending on inclination and class size). A portion of this class will invite participants to read their work.

Teaching Style: My workshops are always both conversational and participant-driven. By its nature, the subject of permission can be a daunting one: Students often come to the table with a story they “must” tell, and either they haven’t started work on it out of fear, or they have, and become paralyzed by it. Therefore, as an imperative, my workshops are conversational and warm but rigorous, and most importantly, safe. I want each person to leave at the end of every meeting and be inspired to sit down and write.

Level: Intermediate

This course is held online via Zoom.

Led by

Elissa Altman

Elissa Altman

Elissa Altman is the award-winning author of the hybrid memoir Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create, and the memoirs Motherland, Treyf, and Poor Man’s Feast. Winner of the James Beard Award, Altman was a finalist for The Frank McCourt Memoir Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Connecticut Book Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Her work can be found in the Bitter Southerner, Orion, On Being, Lion’s Roar, the Guardian, and beyond. She lives in Connecticut with her wife, book designer Susan Turner.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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