Writing a memoir after the age of 50 can be a great way to take stock, whether you’re writing to get published, leave a record for your friends and family, or simply clarify the past for your own edification.

In this class, writers over 50 will broaden their mastery of the memoir form and discover new ways to present the experiences of their lives. Unlike novels, short stories and poems, the memoir requires writers to share the truth as they know it. To that end, memoir writers, just like the authors of those more freewheeling genres, still need a strong narrator and compelling narrative technique.The focus of this class is on beginning to develop techniques to tell your story in an engaging way.

Class Structure & Details

•Format: Weekly, unrecorded live classes via Google Meet

•What to Expect: During the hour-long, weekly Google Meet session, we will do close readings of excerpts of memoirs written by writers over 50 and discuss the techniques they use. After the class meeting, students put those techniques to use in an exercise and share their work in the online classroom. Each student receives structured, written feedback in the online classroom from three of their classmates and the teacher.

•Who Can Join:This six-week online workshop is open to all writers over the age of 50 who are interested in writing a memoir.

📌 Note: Our Google Meet sessions are highly interactive and designed to be a safe space for sharing fresh work, so they are not recorded.

Instructor

Writers Studio Teacher

Sally McElwain

Sarah (Sally) McElwain teaches Over-50 Memoir at the Writers Studio. Her novel, Born Lucky, was published by Rain Mountain Press in 2026. Her essay, "Fingertips Part 3 with Thanks to Stevie Wonder," about teaching yoga to the blind is anthologized in the The Art of Touch, University of Georgia Press. For a decade she was a co-host of Writers Read NYC, providing performance venues in Greenwich Village for writers.

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