So You Want to Write a Memoir? — 4-Week Online Memoir Workshop with Annmarie Kelly Starts Monday, September 13th, 2027

So You Want to Write a Memoir? Online Workshop | Sept 2027

So You Want to Write a Memoir? A 4-Week Zoom Intensive with Annmarie Kelly

Begins Monday, September 13, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Mondays, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:

• Los Angeles (PDT): 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
• Chicago (CDT): 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
• New York (EDT): 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor Annmarie Kelly is the author of Here Be Dragons, a memoir about the wonderful misery of raising children. She also hosts Wild Precious Life, a literary podcast about authors and craft. Annmarie teaches at Stanford University and Cuyahoga Community College, and she works with incarcerated students trying to obtain degrees. Her essays have appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, in Today Parenting, Black Fork, Hippocampus, and The New York Observer, among others, and her work has been staged with Cleveland Humanities and Listen to Your Mother Pittsburgh. She’s received support from Ohio Arts Council, Tin House, Chautauqua, Sewanee, Il Monasterino della Conoscenza, and the Martha’s Vineyard Creative Writing Institute, and she’s served as both a Hemingway-Pfeiffer and Erma Bombeck Writer-in-Residence. In her non-writing moments, Annmarie loves kickboxing, karaoke, hound dogs, ping-pong, books that make her laugh, movies that make her cry, and salads other people make her eat. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she’s writing a book with the ghost of her father.

Meet the Teaching Artist

Learn more about Annmarie in our interview, Meet the Teaching Artist: So You Want to Write a Memoir? with Annmarie Kelly.

Who is this class for?

Everyone has a memoir inside of them, but sometimes it takes a little support and prodding to help us bring our truth to the page. This online memoir writing workshop welcomes writers at every level, whether you have a handful of drafted chapters or a phone full of notes. Together we’ll discover how to tap into vulnerability, heartache, love, and loss to share the stories only we can tell.

What to expect:

So You Want to Write a Memoir? Maybe you’ve drafted a handful of chapters. Maybe you jot down notes on your phone or scribble lists on a sketchpad in your car. Maybe you already have the photo picked out for your book jacket. Now what? How do you actually write the book?

Planning, pitching, and publishing a memoir can be lonely work, but it is also absolutely do-able and wonderfully rewarding. In this online writing class, we’ll get moving on our memoirs. We’ll jumpstart creative juices and put ourselves on the path to success.

What are the writing goals?

Each week, we’ll study one facet of memoir and apply that technique in our own storytelling. In addition to generating new material, everyone will leave this workshop with a sample book proposal and the inspiration needed to write the stories only you can tell.

Readings

No assigned texts. Only excerpts provided by the instructor.

COURSE OUTLINE

• Week 1: Mining Memories. What are the 6-12 moments that comprise the bulk of the story you want to tell?
• Week 2: Writing Delight. It’s been said that the center of every memoir is a love story. What is yours?
• Week 3: Transcending Pain. What is one difficult story that may hurt to tell but needs to be told?
• Week 4: Protecting Your Truth. A memoir is our version of the tale. What obligations do we have to the other characters in our stories?

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Five to eight key scenes that will form the bones of your memoir.
• An outline of the most important moments of your autobiography.
• Routines and prompts to keep you writing even when the workshop ends.
• List of publications that welcome CNF submissions.
• Connections to other writers on their own memoir journey.

TESTIMONIALS:

“Annmarie radiates energy.” — Sonia N.

“I recently completed So You Want To Write a Memoir, led by Annemarie Harbagh. As a retired clinician and academic, I found these workshops helpful in breaking me out of a structured, research-oriented writing format and into a more creative mindset. My brief experience with a few workshops has been very rewarding and informative. I have been very impressed. Overall, a very good value and helpful content.” — Former Student

“I would rate this class a 10. Overall, this was the best experience I’ve ever had in a writing course.” — Kate F.

“Annmarie’s teaching skills were amazing, and she vividly answered my questions.” — Chelsea K.

“For the first time, I feel like I can call myself a writer. Thank you, Annmarie!” — Amanda R.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $330 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class meets weekly via Zoom. Come prepared for a super fun class with live interaction on Zoom each week and plenty of writing, reading, and talking!

• Instructor: Annmarie Kelly
• Begins Monday, September 13, 2027
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Mondays, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET
• Tuition is $330 USD.