WWU to offer memoir-writing program this fall

This fall, Western Washington University will offer a three-academic-quarter memoir writing program that starts Oct. 2.

The program, open to community members, is designed to guide participants to become more sophisticated readers and accomplished writers as they build and develop a skill set over the course of three consecutive classes. Writers of all experience levels are welcome!

• Learn how to put the past on the page.
• Develop and enrich writing in a supportive environment.
• Expand written abilities, editing skills and palette of possibilities.

Each quarter’s class will include prompts to spark writing and insight, exercises to develop narrative voice and readings from selected modern memoirs as participants experiment with various ways to tell personal stories.

Participants will produce several fully developed and edited essays or chapters suitable for publication, including a piece to present at Village Books upon completion of the program.

Course themes progress from “Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination” to “Development: Giving Narrative Voice to the Past” to “Expand and Edit: Structuring the Past for the Page and Presentation.”

All three courses are taught by award-winning Laura Kalpakian, the acclaimed author of 10 novels and three collections of short fiction.

Classes will meet from 6-9 p.m. once weekly for each eight week term.

Participants can register online or with mail-in registration forms that can be found online.

An information session will be held from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Village Books in Fairhaven.

For more information, visit www.extendeded.wwu.edu, call (360) 650-3308 or email ExtendedEd@wwu.edu.