Craft Seminar: What I Learned about Writing a Memoir (and from Whom) with Nicole Treska
Craft Seminar: What I Learned about Writing a Memoir (and from Whom) with Nicole Treska
3 Sessions: Saturdays, May 10, 17, 24
2:00-4:00pm ET
Nicole Treska
Nicole Treska is the author of the debut memoir Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even (Simon & Schuster, 2024). She taught at The City College of New York for over fifteen years, teaching a broad range of creative writing courses and workshops, including prose, drama, intro-advanced creative writing, and advanced grammar. She now teaches private classes. Gordon Lish praised Wonderland as "Straight Talk!", and Isaac Fitzgerald called Treska, "a swaggering storyteller of the highest degree." The Wall Street Journal claimed, "If Ms. Treska preaches half as well as she practices, her students are lucky. She has a talent for a sweet turn of phrase.”
Her short fiction has recently appeared in The End, Forever Magazine, and Archway Editions, as well as New York Tyrant magazine, Epiphany literary journal, and Egress: New Openings in Literary Art. Her interviews and reviews are up at Electric Literature, Guernica, The Millions, BOMB, The Rumpus, and others.
Memoir and Creative Non-Fiction (and auto-fiction, for that matter) involve a special alchemy of writing well and deeply about oneself while simultaneously wrangling the tricks of time, memory, and fact into the shape of a story. CNF is no small feat. But it’s also a genre of growing interest to many— both readers and writers—and in this class, I’d like to pass along What I Learned Writing a Memoir (and from Whom), to anyone who's interested and falls into either of these categories. Stuff like how to create a linear structure out of a circular life; how to infuse thematic resonance into our personal narratives, research, and memories; how to identify THE story that will carry all our stories—the Ur story, I suppose, and much, much more. My experience in the classroom, writing across genres, and love of the 3 S’s (storytelling, style, and syntax), will help writers of all backgrounds/experience improve their work and tell their story.
Each 2-hour class will include…
Ask Me Anything (15 min.)
Reading and Discussion (30 min.)
Craft discussion/lecture based on the reading (30 min.)
Author visit! (30 min.)
Ask Author Anything (15 min.)
Students will walk away with a better sense of…
How to Say It: prompts and conversations to help mine, draft, and shape your story
The Shape of Things: how to think about structure and plot in non-fiction
What to Cut: practical editing skills at the macro and micro level
This course has 3 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, May 2.
Nicole Treska is a writer and professor living in New York City. She is the author of the debut memoir Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even (Simon & Schuster, 2024). The Wall Street Journal called Wonderland "gatsbyesque," and Treska "washed up on the shores of respectability…if Ms. Treska preaches half as well as she practices, her students are lucky. She has a talent for a sweet turn of phrase.”
Her work has recently appeared in The End, Forever Magazine, and Archway Editions. Her short fiction has appeared in New York Tyrant magazine, Epiphany literary journal, and Egress: New Openings in Literary Art. Her interviews and reviews are up at Electric Literature, Guernica, The Millions, BOMB, The Rumpus, and others.
