Work on your memoir or collection of essays with bestselling author Nicole Chung!

This intensive workshop is open to writers working on a memoir, memoir-in-essays, or essay collection. You’ll have the opportunity to participate in lively craft discussions, reflection/writing exercises, and in-depth workshops designed to help you identify and hone your strengths as a writer. If you have an idea for a book project and are looking to jumpstart it—or are already underway, but struggling to maintain your momentum—this class will help you take concrete next steps and deepen your craft in a supportive and generative community.

Attend the Virtual Info Session

Tuesday, December 15th, 2026
ZOOM, 7pm ET

Meet Nicole Chung, instructor for our Memoir Year workshop, and have all your questions about the program answered!

Format

Through in-class readings, craft talks, and guided writing exercises, we’ll explore book openings, writing the self, characterization, setting, structure, chronology, and more. We’ll spend time reflecting and brainstorming, learning how to identify and pursue the stories that matter most to you. You will have the opportunity to have two to three memoir excerpts (10 to 20 pages each, double-spaced) workshopped in class with your instructor and peers.

We’ll discuss the importance of your choices as a writer, and how to engage deeply and intentionally with the questions that drive your work. We’ll talk about how to address existing gaps in knowledge or memory, the role speculation and imagination can play in memoir, and whether and how to bring research and reportage into your personal narrative. We’ll consider the ethics of writing about real people, places, and events, and what guiding principles or boundaries feel necessary for you. We’ll read excerpts from recent works of nonfiction, examining the storytelling choices other writers have made and how we can learn from them. We’ll address your questions about book proposals, pitching, and the publishing industry, and hear from visiting authors and literary agents who will share tips and talk about the writing and publication processes.

This course will allow you to focus on expanding your craft in community with your fellow writers, helping you build the sustainable writing practice you want—one that will allow you to continue showing up for your work, and telling the stories you need to tell, long after our workshop ends.

Schedule

This class will typically meet twice per month from February 9, 2027 – November 16, 2027, 7–9pm ET, although there may be one or two longer breaks over the summer for students to focus on writing.