Blog
The Writing Life: Exploring Memoir & Personal Essay, an Interview with Lauren Brazeal Garza
by Writing Workshops Staff
3 months ago
With an impressive body of work that spans poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Lauren Brazeal Garza has carved a niche for herself as a storyteller who speaks candidly about her life experiences. Her memoir-in-verse, Gutter, chronicles her tumultuous teenage years marked by homelessness, while her forthcoming literary horror novel, The Devotee, draws from her life as a queer woman navigating poverty post-foster care. This depth of personal history, coupled with her academic prowess—an M.F.A. from Bennington College and a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Dallas—equips her with a unique perspective on testimonial literature and narratives from marginalized voices.
Now, Lauren brings her expertise to WritingWorkshops.com with a compelling new course, Writing Life: Exploring Memoir and Personal Essay, a 6-Week Generative Intensive (Zoom).
In this intimate and explorative workshop, participants will delve into the art of crafting memoir and personal essays that transcend mere chronology. Over six weeks, students will engage with techniques employed by renowned memoirists and poets, experimenting with prose and poetry to vividly capture their memories and experiences.
Lauren's course promises a transformative journey through the architecture of memory, the complexities of personal relationships, and the healing power of storytelling. Each week, participants will draft new pieces, receive constructive feedback, and ultimately, share their work in a celebratory final reading. Beyond honing their writing skills, students will leave with a richer understanding of how to articulate their stories, equipped with a robust toolbox for future memoir and essay endeavors.
Join us as we sit down with Lauren Brazeal Garza to discuss her upcoming class, her approach to writing about personal experiences, and the profound impact of sharing our stories. Whether you're an aspiring writer or a seasoned memoirist, this conversation is sure to inspire and enlighten.
Writing Workshops: Lauren, your class emphasizes the unique architecture of memory in memoir and personal essays. Can you explain how this approach differs from traditional autobiography and how it can benefit writers exploring their own experiences?
Lauren Brazeal Garza: I like to think of memoir and autobiography as sisters—closely related, but not identical. While each offers a catalog of memories within the author’s life, traditional autobiography often focuses on retelling the who, what, where, and when. Memoirs tend to prioritize authenticity over accuracy. This means memoirists might focus on how things felt, and explore the why and how of events.
Specifically, a focus on sensory details: the sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of a memory or period of an author’s life is the key to modern memoir. And why not? Most people’s memories rarely focus on dates, times, and locations. We remember emotions; what we saw, heard, and felt during an event. This focus on sensory details helps immerse readers in the author’s memories, ultimately offering a richer and more emotionally compelling narrative. In my courses, I encourage my students to plumb the sensory details of their memories as they write, which helps provide an authentic retelling of their lives to readers.
WW: You’ve included a diverse range of techniques from contemporary writers in your curriculum. Could you give us a sneak peek into one or two of these techniques and how they can help students craft compelling memoirs or personal essays?
LBG: As a teacher of memoir and personal essay, I’ve found many writers are wary of accessing literary devices like simile and metaphor in their nonfiction work. This is often because we rarely spend time exploring the rich symbolism inherent in our lives—but it’s there, waiting to be examined and used as we craft our personal narratives. In this course, we’ll study a technique I call “weight-bearing simile,” which strengthens the emotional impact of all writing, especially nonfiction. We will study the work of the poet Yusef Komunyakaa, and see how he used “weight-bearing similes” in his work. While this technique is more common in poetry, it’s equally useful to memoirists who want to pack a heavy emotional punch in a small space.
WW: Week 5 of your course focuses on "Writing to Heal." How do you guide students through the process of using writing as a therapeutic tool, and what kind of transformations have you seen in past students who have engaged in this practice?
LBG: Writing our thoughts and feelings can help us navigate loss and understand painful events. As a survivor of trauma myself, I’ve found that sometimes the silence and privacy of writing feel safer than speaking out loud; by putting my memories on paper, I’ve been able to say, “Yes, this really happened. I was there!” Writing can be a way to find our voices again, especially after feeling silenced.
It’s important to note that “writing to heal” can never replace working with a licensed psychologist through counseling, and I discourage my students from writing about memories they’re not emotionally ready to access. With this in mind, my classes offer a supportive and encouraging community, and many students feel empowered and find comfort when they choose to write as a path to healing on their terms.
WW: Your personal experiences have deeply informed your work. How do you incorporate your journey and background into your teaching methods, and what unique perspectives do you bring to the table that can inspire your students?
LBG: I had plenty of mentors who helped me along the way, but I found many of my teachers weren’t equipped to help me navigate writing about my teenage homelessness and years of poverty that followed. For example, as a young writer I won a large scholarship to attend a prestigious writing program and an author on the faculty privately asked, “So, we’re all dying to know, how did a person like you end up here?” (referring to my previous homelessness I’d mentioned in the program’s application). Othering and lack of empathy can shut an emerging writer down. Whenever I sit down to design a course or craft discussion, I begin from a place of empathy that asks, what would have been helpful to me when I was first writing? What would I have wanted to know? I celebrate that my students come from all backgrounds and have a multitude of life experiences, and see these as the strengths they are.
I also try to pass on lessons and valuable insight I had to learn the hard way. As an emerging memoirist, there were so many pitfalls and potential obstacles I wasn’t warned about—things as simple as confusing authorial voice with an inner monologue (the voice of our speakers vs. who we are as people), how to avoid retraumatizing ourselves as we write painful memories, and how to navigate the labyrinthian world of publishing. I did many things wrong as I discovered the practices I live by and teach. In my classes, I lay out practical advice for my students, hopefully saving them years of time and effort as they chronicle their own lives in writing.
WW: The final reading session sounds like a wonderful way to conclude the course. Can you share more about what this session entails and how it helps students gain confidence in presenting their work?
LBG: I nurture a sense of community in my workshops, and many of my students form lasting friendships with one another long after my courses conclude. The final reading is a celebration of our journey together and often feels a bit like a party. Time permitting, everyone in the class reads a piece they’ve worked on (usually a new draft of a piece they workshopped in a previous week). It’s a way to enjoy the trust we’ve built with one another over the previous weeks before we journey separately into the world as writers.
WW: For someone considering this class, what would you say are the top three takeaways they can expect by the end of the six weeks, and how can these takeaways impact their future writing endeavors?
LBG: The three biggest takeaways my students should expect are boosted confidence, a better knowledge of how to study the craft of writers they admire, and a better ability to apply their newly learned skills to their own writing.
Each week we study craft in a piece of creative writing using techniques used in MFA and PhD programs—so my students will learn how to approach literature as creative writing scholars do. We’ll apply those reading skills to our own work in workshops, where we discuss the craft of each other's work in a supportive, encouraging way. Finally, because the course encourages experimentation through lots of low-stakes writing prompts and friendly discussions, my students will gain confidence in themselves—both as readers and writers.
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Avoid the waitlist and sign up now for Lauren's upcoming class, Writing Life: Exploring Memoir and Personal Essay 6-Week Generative Intensive (Zoom).
Instructor Lauren Brazeal Garza is the author of five books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction including her memoir-in-verse, Gutter (YesYes Books, 2018), which chronicles her homelessness as a teenager, and her literary horror novel, The Devotee (forthcoming), which was inspired by her experiences as a queer woman living in poverty after she aged out of the foster system. She earned her M.F.A in creative writing from Bennington College, and her Ph.D. in Literature from The University of Texas at Dallas with a specialty in testimonial literature and narratives from marginalized voices. A proud Texan for the past decade, she recently moved from Dallas to the isolated pine forests of far East Texas.
