CRWR 513—Nonfiction Technique: Life and the Lyric
Spring 2016
Monday 3:10-6 LA 102
bluntj@mso.umt.edu
Office: LA 112 Hours: M/W 1-3 and by appointment
This course offers sustained looks at two distinct approaches of creative nonfiction—lyric essay
and memoir. Lyric essay is a newer hybrid form that draws on poetics to stretch the boundary of
essay. We will explore the current buzz surrounding this short essay form by reading current
publications and by writing examples for peer review During the second part of the course,
students will explore the art of memoir in a range of subjects, styles and periods. A survey of
seminal works will acquaint students with the defining theories of life writing, while more
contemporary authors will demonstrate the variety of forms that life writing can take. By
incorporating literary elements such as conflict, characterization, dramatic structure, and
transformation, students will write their own memoir essay as a final project.
The Lyric: In 1977, Seneca Review surveyed a growing body of work it deemed “poetic essays”
or “Essayistic poems,” noting that such hybrids “give primacy to artfulness over the conveying
of information. They [often] forsake narrative line, discursive logic, and the art of persuasion in
favor of idiosyncratic meditation.” And the Lyric Essay was born. Or was it? Since then, the
lyric essay has continued to defy simple categorization or labeling, and has lent itself to a stillevolving critical discourse regarding form, lyricism and intent. In this course, students will
critically explore a myriad of works by practitioners working from all angles in the lyric essay
subgenre, and consider the ways in which these works conform to, expand and push the
boundaries of various established and emergent techniques, including but not limited to the prose
poem, hermit crab essay and collage or mosaic essay. Students also will create and workshop
their own lyric essays, experimenting with a variety of forms.
Text for this segment: Brief Encounters, edited by Judith Kitchen
The Life: People have a near universal urge to put their life experiences into a form accessible to
others, whether that be storytelling, interpretive arts or some form of writing. For those
approaching life stories form the nonfiction standpoint, memoir is where it’s at. As in all writing
that is both self-discovery and presentation to others, the question is how to select the most
telling and most typifying scenes, people, relationships, conflicts and cultural pressures to
convey the facts of your life, your understanding of those facts, and what holds those facts
together. Memoir writing is different from autobiographical writing, where the focus is on the
public life of an individual. Autobiographies usually occur in chronological order from a time
even before you were born—the relevant experiences in the parents’ lives, for example.
Memoir, instead, is some portion, some really important segment or element of your life into
which, as you write, you pour some of what you’ve learned and reflect on the specifics that call
forth the general.
By reading the memoirs of others, writing and submitting your own essays to workshop, and
responding to the writing of your peers, you learn a good deal about what works and what does
not work in shaping experience for readers. Our goals will be to get the material up out of your
private journal and onto the page for readers; to develop a sense of what to put in and what to
leave out, and an estimate of where to begin and where to end; to learn to evaluate the strengths
and weaknesses of description, narration, and interpretation, and the role of dramatization and of
dialogue in memoir. Throughout, we’ll address the standard memoir questions that recur with
this genre: What is the role of memory? Of invention? How can we make our peace with the
vagaries of fact, perspective and truth as it applies to our own memoirs and those of others?
What additional ways are there to evoke the truth other than, say, chronology or documentation?
And then there are the underlying writer’s questions: what are you trying to say about your life?
Why should anyone care about your life as memoir? And perhaps most important of all, how can
you enable readers to feel what you’ve felt, experience what you’ve experienced?
Texts for this segment: The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr [you should have read Liars’ Club]
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Come Back (P.S.) by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
Tweak by Nic Sheff
Housekeeping
Attendance counts: our class meets once a week, and we have only 13 meetings. I will require
you to attend every class in a timely manner. You are allowed one excused absence per semester
before absences will impact your grade. You are allowed one tardy per semester [10 minutes
late], so print workshop materials in advance and plan your time accordingly. If you feel you
will have difficulty maintaining this requirement, please meet with me after the first class.
Participation in class discussions and the workshop are mandatory, and to participate fully, you
must come to class prepared. Participation will be evaluated as part of final grade. Coming
prepared to class means:
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Reading all materials thoroughly, more than once if necessary
Researching names and events that appear in essays if they are unfamiliar
Writing down discussion questions and observations of reading assignments
Backing up your observations about technique, theme and language with textual quotes,
both for peers’ work and for professional works.
In workshop, contributing valuable and specific feedback that will help not only an
individual writer, but all members of the class further their understanding of the text and
the writing principles under discussion
Typing and bringing to workshop a one-page response to memoir essay, or half-page for
lyric essay, and providing a copy for both the author and for me.
Disabilities: In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, I will make every effort to
provide appropriate accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students must
register with a Disability Services Coordinator and meet with me to make arrangements.
Plagiarism: Enrollment in this university and in this class assumes a commitment to upholding
the principles of academic integrity. If you have any confusion about proper citation of
published works or questions about documentation of work other than your own, bring these to
my attention prior to submitting for workshop or final grade.