Department of English Courses

Life-writing, Fragmentary and Experimental Memoir 2025

Tuesday evenings, 6 pm to 8 pm

The best examples of life-writing and memoir have always been those that tell stories through highly generative and creative ways of seeing the world. The ‘memoirist’ is a particular kind of storyteller within literary traditions across the globe and this course will call attention to the most innovative and nuanced examples, from nature and travel writing to biography and autofiction. Together, we will discuss and critique these varied approaches to memoir and life-writing, using the reading list books as exemplars and starting points. We'll explore these strong and emerging genres that can blend autobiographical writing and non-fiction. How do we create an engaging 'story' that binds our material together? What can be included and what should be edited out? How best to structure material?

Every week, we'll do exercises to explore aspects of the craft of writing, including how to progress and structure your writing, how to develop an individual narrative voice, mapping your plot, and how to integrate non-fiction material. Can dialogue be included/created? What kind of source material can be used? How do we navigate the vagaries of memory and differing points of view? Do we need to get the permission of others?

Dates: 6th May - 1st July 2025

Location: Online
We will send you joining instructions nearer the start date of the course. Until then, email us on Englishlifelong@bristol.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Contact Info:
english-lifelong@bristol.ac.uk
0117 455 8271

Dates: 30/04/2025 - 25/06/2025

Wednesdays, 6pm - 7:30pm

This is an exciting course which enables students to use their experiences to write their own piece of creative writing over eight weeks. Combining this with your own imagination, close reading skills and their application and working with others, you will learn how creative writing works. The course also draws on examples of the craft of short story writing from writers around the globe including Bristol.

This course comprises 6 weeks of taught sessions and 1 one-to-one mentoring session with your tutor.

Location: Online via Zoom. We will send you a live link and joining instructions nearer the start date of the course. Until then, email us on English_lifelong@bristol.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Refund Policy:
Refunds for our short courses are only to be given in exceptional circumstances and no less than one month before the course is due to start. Refunds for a course already started cannot be accepted. If a student wishes to withdraw from a course once it has begun and wishes to defer their place onto a different course, they are only guaranteed a place on the different course if it does not sell out. A guarantee of deferred places can only be confirmed one week before the course is due to start.

Contact Info:
English-Lifelong@bristol.ac.uk
0117 455 8271