Thursday, March 12, 2020 | 4-6:50PM

Digging Deep: The Craft of Memoir

Laura Scudder Conference Room, Roosevelt Hall 121

Powerful personal stories call for writers to not only mine their memory and imagination, but also dig deep emotionally. This workshop offers support, structure and guidance for anyone who has been wrestling with the complex layering of memory, imagination and discovery that great memoir writing demands. This workshop offers generative writing exercises, small group discussions, lectures on craft and suggested readings. Writers come away with a productive way to move forward with intensely autobiographical writing and a reason to commit to the endeavor. Suitable for both emerging and experienced writers.

Samantha Dunn, Lecturer, Department of English

Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Samantha Dunn is the author of Failing Paris, a finalist for the PEN West Fiction Award in 2000, and the memoirs Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life (Henry Holt & Co.), a BookSense 76 pick, and Faith in Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation.

Samantha’s work is anthologized in a number of places, including the short story anthology, Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles, which she co-edited with writer Julianne Ortale. Other recent collections showcasing her work include the Seal Press releases Dancing at the Shame Prom: Sharing the Stories That Kept Us Small and Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up.

Samantha’s essays have appeared in numerous national publications including the Los Angeles Times, O (Oprah) Magazine, Ms., and Shape. In 2000 she received the Maggie Award for Best Personal Essay in a Consumer Publication. A widely published journalist, her bylines are regularly featured in InStyle, Glamour, SELF, Men’s Health and a variety of other consumer magazines. She has also written for the stage, as a co-creator of the show “American Ese,” and has taken a few turns screenwriting as a member of the Writers Guild of America. Samantha teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and at the Idyllwild Arts Center in California, and was a longtime writer-in-residence at the New York State Summer Writers Institute.

A former specialty features writer for The Orange County Register, Samantha lives in Orange, California, with her husband, musician/politico Jimmy Camp, and their son, Ben.