Literary Snapshots: Writing the Micro Memoir

a four-session creative nonfiction class with Sonja Livingston Readers are hungrier than ever for personal stories that help to connect us to each other while expanding our sense of the world. Meanwhile, writers are hungry to tell their stories in ways that dig deep and resonate. Whether you’re just starting out or want to revive a project that is stalled, this workshop will help jumpstart your memoir or creative nonfiction project using brief nonfiction pieces or “snapshots”. Inspired by a range of contemporary writings (Maggie Smith, Brian Doyle, Anne Panning) and the work you write, this class will offer craft tips, writing prompts and time to discuss your writing in a supportive environment. You’ll come away with new ideas and several draft “snapshots” which may be expanded into longer works or polished into a series of micro-memoirs. Sonja Livingston is the author of four books of creative nonfiction, including the award winning memoir, Ghostbread which has been adopted for classroom use around the country. Her work appears in outlets such as The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Salon. Honors include a NYFA Fellowship, an Iowa Review Award, an Arts & Letters Prize, a VanderMey Nonfiction Prize and an AWP Book Prize. Sonja is an associate professor and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University and teaches in the Postgraduate Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.