A big part of becoming a good writer is honing your ability to see. It's not just a matter of accurately visualizing persons or places. Bringing that person or place to life on the page, and with feeling, requires that the writer consider the role of shading, contrast, perspective, and composition--all techniques in the visual artist's toolkit. In this seminar we will see how these (and other) visual artist techniques are used in successful nonfiction and do writing prompts, (and quick sketches), to apply them to our own work. 

We read memoir, in part, because we want to enter a different world. But as a memoirist how you can you effectively conger that world and do so without slowing story? How how does that exterior world reflect the interior? Through in-class exercises and close reading of published works, by Jesmyn Ward, Sonali Deraniyagala, Edmund White, among others, we will explore how setting can develop the tone of a piece, reveal character, lifestyle, and even point of view.