Life writing with Anne Karpf

Ensure your memoir or biography enhances all the beauty, drama and poignancy of real life, while making sense of its messiness

Life writing – whether in the form of memoir, autobiography or biography – is more popular among both readers and writers than ever. But although you may have a fascinating or intriguing story to tell, it isn't always apparent how to write it in a distinctive and compelling way, one which is also powerful enough to speak to those not directly involved. Whether you want to write a feature, an essay or an entire book, this course will introduce you to some of the challenges of life writing and help you think through the most creative ways of meeting them.

Led by award-winning journalist and memoir writer Anne Karpf, this one-day course explores areas including how to craft a narrative, how to establish a historical vantage-point and what to leave out. After a presentation on the decisions you need to make to embark upon and sustain an effective piece of life writing, you'll get individual feedback on a sample of your own work and develop a greater understanding of how life works on the page. You'll leave the course with an enhanced sense of how to build upon your own strengths as a life writer.

This course is for you if…

• You are interested in writing a biography of a historical figure
• You are planning to write, or are currently writing, a memoir or autobiography
• You're a writer or journalist interested in writing biographies, or ghostwriting autobiographies
• You're a journalist who wants to improve your writing of real life stories

Course description

This course is for those who are interested in producing, or have already embarked upon, a piece of life writing – whether a memoir, autobiography or biography. It will introduce participants to some of the challenges involved in turning life experience into compelling narratives. As well as receiving theoretical tutoring in techniques used to turn experience into narrative, attendees will get personalised feedback on a sample of their own work. For this reason, participants should have some prior experience of writing, and will be asked to bring along a 600-word piece of original life writing to work on during the course. The course will cover:

• Life writing as storytelling
• Life writing as creative non-fiction: using techniques of plot, scenes and characters
• The narrative: who is telling the story, and from which historical vantage point?
• Dialogue: to reconstruct or not?
• What to exclude?
• Ethical dilemmas of life writing

Tutor profile

Anne Karpf is an award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster, contributing columns and features regularly to the Guardian and many other publications. Her books include an acclaimed family memoir, The War After: Living with the Holocaust and How to Age. She is Reader in Professional Writing and Cultural Inquiry at London Metropolitan University.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website