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Tell Your Truth: Memoir writing class with Julie Lythcott-Haims

Which parts of your story are calling to you to explore more deeply? Which parts urge you to shout out to the world? Which parts could serve others?

Now is your chance to get these ideas onto the page with the guidance of bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims. Her memoir, Real American, received the 2018 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award and received praise from media outlets including the New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Essence, and Glamour. Julie previously taught memoir writing at Kepler's in 2020. We are delighted to have her return!

In this 90-minute course on memoir writing, Julie will help you identify and craft your strongest material while navigating the ethical concerns inherent in writing about real life—and developing the confidence to do so.

Your admission includes one copy each of Real American and Lit Starts: Writing Memoir, a book of writing prompts by The Writers Grotto (for which Julie wrote the foreword) that offers pointers, prompts, and spaces to write so that the writing can continue long after Julie's class gets you started.

About Julie Lythcott-Haims

Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. Her work encompasses writing, speaking, teaching, mentoring, and activism.

She is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Her second book is the critically acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, has been called a "groundbreakingly frank" guide to adulthood.

Julie holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard Law, and California College of the Arts. She currently serves on the boards of Common Sense Media, Black Women's Health Imperative, Narrative Magazine, and on the Board of Trustees at California College of the Arts. She serves on the advisory boards of LeanIn.Org, Parents magazine, and Baldwin For the Arts.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of over thirty years, their itinerant young adults, and her mother. Learn more at julielythcotthaims.com.

Earlier Event: June 14
Joanna Ho with Abigail Hing Wen
Later Event: June 22
Ruth Ozeki