Join me in this live, two-hour class and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned while writing her forthcoming memoir, and about the approaches sure to be of help as you share your own personal history.

Hello! I’m Susan Orlean. I’m a journalist and author. I write what is often called “creative nonfiction”—that is, I write about real life but with style and narrative intention that I hope has the emotional and immersive effect on readers that we often associate with fiction.

I’ve been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992, where I’ve contributed profiles, travel pieces, essays, humor, and investigations into such subjects as show dogs, umbrella inventors, and bullfighters. I’ve also written nine books, including The Library Book, The Orchid Thief, and On Animals. And most recently, I just finished a memoir, titled Joy Ride, which will be published in the fall of 2025.

I’d like to invite you to my class, Five Things I’ve Learned About Writing a Memoir.

Writing a memoir is something new to me, but I realized immediately that the techniques that helped me tackle The Orchid Thief and my other books and stories were relevant to the memoir as well. I also needed to address the particular challenges of writing about my own life and story. How do you even approach the idea of writing a memoir? How can you dig deep in your own memories to find the material that will matter in the book? How do you deal with the thorny issues of privacy, especially with regards to writing about family and friends? And most importantly, how do you find the confidence to believe your story has merit? These were all the questions that arose for me and are central to any effort to write a personal story.

In this class, we’ll talk about the most urgent question of why you should (or shouldn’t) write a memoir, and how to approach the process most effectively. Where do you even begin?! (I have suggestions…) We’ll talk about the difference between keeping a journal versus crafting a book that will speak to a broad audience. We’ll examine the essential question of tone, which is the element that makes memoirs succeed or fail. There’s a lot to talk about: Writing a memoir is a very special undertaking, and a very rewarding one.

This class will help writers of all kinds who have considered writing a personal history. It will also be an opportunity to talk about how to make any kind of writing touch readers and affect them. For people who love reading memoirs, this class will answer questions about the tradecraft that goes into creating a successful one. For anyone who shares personal stories, this will help you think differently about how to do it well.

I hope you’ll join me!

– Susan Orlean