Through the Back Door: Writing the Hybrid Memoir | 6 weeks
Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM (ET) | Zoom
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
When we break away from what’s going on inside our heads, we just might see our own lives in a new light and discover something universal. This is the foundation of a “backdoor memoir”: a work that seems at first to focus on an outside phenomenon—the love letters of a Southern Gothic novelist, or the oil-and-gas industry in the North Sea—but ends up revealing just as much about its author as it does its topic. In this 6-week class, students will read excerpts from memoirs such as Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, experiment with prompts, and then write a final piece that uses research, reporting, and/or criticism to open the door to the self.
Class dates: March 5, March 12, March 19, April 2, April 9, April 16
Location: Online
Instructor: Kristen Martin is a writer and critic based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Her first book, The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, will be published by Bold Type Books in January 2025.
Read our FAQ
Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM (ET) | Zoom
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
When we break away from what’s going on inside our heads, we just might see our own lives in a new light and discover something universal. This is the foundation of a “backdoor memoir”: a work that seems at first to focus on an outside phenomenon—the love letters of a Southern Gothic novelist, or the oil-and-gas industry in the North Sea—but ends up revealing just as much about its author as it does its topic. In this 6-week class, students will read excerpts from memoirs such as Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, experiment with prompts, and then write a final piece that uses research, reporting, and/or criticism to open the door to the self.
Class dates: March 5, March 12, March 19, April 2, April 9, April 16
Location: Online
Instructor: Kristen Martin is a writer and critic based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Her first book, The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, will be published by Bold Type Books in January 2025.
Read our FAQ
Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM (ET) | Zoom
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
When we break away from what’s going on inside our heads, we just might see our own lives in a new light and discover something universal. This is the foundation of a “backdoor memoir”: a work that seems at first to focus on an outside phenomenon—the love letters of a Southern Gothic novelist, or the oil-and-gas industry in the North Sea—but ends up revealing just as much about its author as it does its topic. In this 6-week class, students will read excerpts from memoirs such as Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, experiment with prompts, and then write a final piece that uses research, reporting, and/or criticism to open the door to the self.
Class dates: March 5, March 12, March 19, April 2, April 9, April 16
Location: Online
Instructor: Kristen Martin is a writer and critic based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Her first book, The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, will be published by Bold Type Books in January 2025.
