SEMINAR | Speculative Memoir Magic: Reclaiming Your Memoir’s Power through Speculative Elements
March 21 @ 1:00 pm – March 28 @ 3:00 pm EDT
Using speculative elements in your memoir deepens your writing and can crack open blocks in unexpected ways.
Live on Zoom | Saturdays March 21 & 28, 1-3 pm Eastern
For Memoir
The speculative can help memoirists dramatize things that have been previously unspeakable (& unwritable!) Aligning the imaginative realms with the external events of life is a natural connection for storytellers. Far from being untruths, speculative elements can bring a reader deeper into the emotional and psychological realities of the memoirist’s psyche.
Speculative memoir is finding its rightful place in the world of creative nonfiction. Books like Jami Nakamura Lin’s The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir, Carmen Maria Machado’s Into the Dream House, Ariel Gore’s We Were Witches, Anna Joy Springer’s The Vicious Red Relic, Love, Monster Portraits by Sofia Samatar, and the presenter’s memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir of Ravens, have been breaking new ground in memoir, showing a wide range of storytelling approaches unbound by the traditional restraints of the genre.
This seminar offers insight into the vast potential of speculative memoir and provides tools for you to bring speculative elements into your own writing. After reviewing key terms and looking at a brief breakdown of the author’s use of speculative in her memoir, we will practice with generative writing prompts of varying lengths, with ample opportunity to share, receive reflective feedback, and ask questions. We will also learn a deep inquiry process of active imagination to help with writer’s blocks of all kinds.
All participants will receive the slide deck and a powerful Speculative Memoir Playbook, designed by Laraine Herring, with a recommended reading list and additional prompts, tools, and insights into how they can incorporate speculative elements into their work.
In this 2-day seminar, you’ll:
- EXAMINE how memoir always engages with the speculative, even without apparent ghosts or magical elements
- CONSIDER various definitions of speculative memoir
- UNDERSTAND, through a short case study of the presenter’s speculative memoir, how and why the form was selected for her story and how it changed the book
- LEARN how, when, and why to use speculative elements in your memoir
- PRACTICE engaging with speculative elements in your writing
- LEARN a deep inquiry practice that utilizes active imagination to help with blocks
- SHARE work (if willing) and receive generative, reflective feedback
This course is ideal for intermediate or advanced memoirists who are:
- Stuck writing psychologically challenging scenes
- Incorporating ancestral stories and voices into their work
- Seeking to deepen emotional scenes without becoming overly sentimental
- Feeling blocked or uncertain about their story
- Searching for the right structure or form for their memoir
- Struggling to access and vividly portray defining moments from their lives
- Writing memoirs with a stronger internal focus than external events
- Facing challenges in dramatizing emotional responses like grief, love, anger, and joy
Closed captioning is available. ✔
Think you might miss part of the class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after each session. ✔
This seminar was originally offered January 2025.
ABOUT YOUR Instructor
Laraine Herring’s memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens, was released in 2021 from Regal House. She’s the editor of the anthology Becoming Real: Women Reclaim the Power of the Imagined through Speculative Nonfiction (Pact Press, 2024), and a trilogy of writing books from Shambhala, including Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice. She’s a retired professor of creative writing and psychology, and has worked with writers for thirty years. She’s also an illustrator and a grief counselor, and creator of The Grief Forest: a book about what we don’t talk about. She founded the online ‘zine Hags on Fire, a place for women to share stories about menopause, and co-designed The Imaginal Memoir Cave immersion program with Gayle Brandeis. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Tiferet, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, and many more places. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Counseling Psychology, and lives in the mountains of northern Arizona with many cats.
Student Testimonials
“Laraine helped my book tell me what it wants to be and challenged me to do the work to get it there. I am grateful for her intuitive, empathic, supportive approach and for her enthusiasm when I arrived at the realizations she was hoping I’d get to as I did that work. Laraine’s skills are many, and she is fantastic to work with. She is dedicated, direct, detailed, dependable, and delightful.” — Meg Weber, author of A Year of Mr. Lucky
“Through Laraine’s authentic nature and ability to listen, I learned that writing is as much an act of bravery and strength as it is about being gentle and flexible. I can’t wait to be one of her students again!” — Naomi K.
“Without a doubt, Laraine is the most generous, inspirational, and challenging writing instructor I have ever met. Using provocative writing exercises, she guided me through creative discovery, helping reveal ideas and truths I had previously locked away. She challenged me to delve deeper into my story, even if it meant going into the dark hidden corners.” — Janine W.
“Laraine opened doors inside my mind and created space for me to come into relationship with my writing in a refreshing way that was all my own. I had more than one breakthrough working with her. With ease and honesty, she created an authentic, interesting, and inviting space to grow.” — Grace W.
“Laraine encourages students to dig deep. She provides original, interesting exercises designed to pull past the first obvious idea and find the more compelling material underneath. She is as invested in students’ work as the students themselves.” — Janet B.
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the class, you may request a full refund.
Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.
Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com
