Every memoir begins with a situation: an event, a relationship, a moment that continues to exert its pull. But a situation alone is not yet a story.

The work of memoir is to discover the deeper emotional and psychological question that gives experience its shape. As Vivian Gornick famously argues in The Situation and the Story, every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The writer’s task is not simply to recount what happened, but to discover the deeper emotional experience—the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say.

This workshop is built around that distinction.

As a developmental editor and memoir teacher, I read to understand the heart of your story. Every memoir begins with lived experience, but not every draft has yet discovered its story. My role is to help writers recognize it.

Over seven Saturdays, we’ll develop a shared vocabulary for reading memoir by asking the same questions of every submission:

• What is the situation?
• What do you think the story is?
• What is the narrator trying to understand?
• Where does the story begin to emerge?

These questions become more than a method of workshop discussion. They become a way of reading your own work in such a way as to gain greater insight into what you really want to share, and why.

The workshop begins with a craft session introducing these ideas and establishing our approach to feedback. Over the following six weeks, eight writers will workshop memoir excerpts in alternating groups of four. Each participant submits work three times during the workshop, up to 2,500 words per submission. Every submission receives detailed editorial margin notes from me before workshop, along with in-depth discussion from the group.

Everyone should try to attend every session. Reading closely, discussing thoughtfully, and learning from one another’s work are as central to the experience as having your own writing discussed.

Whether you’re just beginning to understand your material or deep into revision, this workshop is designed to help you become a more perceptive reader of your own work—and, ultimately, a stronger memoirist.

FALL 2026 — ONE SPOT LEFT
Saturdays, October 31–December 19
1–4 p.m. ET | Zoom
No class Thanksgiving weekend

WINTER 2027 — REGISTRATION OPEN
Seven Saturdays beginning January 23
1–4 p.m. ET | Zoom

Tuition: $565 | Maximum 8 writers

To request a place, please complete the registration form below. I’ll contact you to confirm availability. Payment will not be requested until minimum enrollment of six has been reached.

Once the workshop is confirmed, tuition of $565 will be due, and your place is secured when payment is received.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

If something comes up and you need to cancel, please let me know as soon as possible. Cancellations received by October 1 will receive a full refund. If you cancel after October 1 but before the workshop begins, your payment will become a credit that you can use toward a future workshop, one-on-one coaching, or editorial work. If I’m able to fill your place, I will give you a full refund instead. Once the workshop has begun, I cannot offer a refund or credit.

If the workshop is canceled, all payments will be refunded in full.

Curious about the approach?

Join me on October 3rd for a three-hour diagnostic session exploring the distinction between situation and story. Participants will submit up to 1,000 words and receive focused feedback on the narrative center of their work.

Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has to say.

—Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story