I Remember: A Five-Week Generative Writing Workshop (Online)
Title
I Remember: A Five-Week Generative Writing Workshop — Using Memory as Source Material
Instructor
Alex Wolfe
Duration
5 weeks
Location
Online
Schedule
Wednesdays, 7:00–9:00pm EST (5 sessions)
November 5 — December 10, 2025
Please note: no class on November 26.
Price
$300
Scholarships Available
Two reduced-tuition spots ($200) are available for students from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as those for whom the cost of the class is a barrier. Scholarships will be awarded to students who share why the class feels meaningful to them and how it connects to their creative path. Applications open until October 29.
Description
In this 5-week generative writing course, we’ll explore how memory can ignite new writing. Through discussions, readings, and generative prompts, we’ll experiment with documenting, archiving, reimagining, and transforming our recollection of past experiences. Our explorations will draw on journals, found materials, online archives, and personal histories, alongside examples from literature, art, film, music, and oral histories.
Sessions include three parts:
Brief conversation and thematic introduction
Focused in-class writing period with prompts
Group sharing and discussion
This class is open to writers and artists of all levels who are curious about the relationship between attention, memory, and narrative.
We’ll take inspiration from short, optional readings by writers including W.G. Sebald, Annie Ernaux, David Markson, Joe Brainard, Virginia Woolf, Gaston Bachelard, Vivian Gornick, Teju Cole, and Jon Fosse.
By the end of the course, you’ll leave with:
A body of new writing
Sharpened observational tools
Practical strategies for gathering material
A renewed awareness of how the world around you can shape your creative practice
Syllabus (subject to change)
Week 1 — Fact or Fiction
Exploring how memory enters creative work, from faithful documentation to imaginative reinvention.
Week 2 — Documenting Memory
Examining archives, journals, and personal collections as raw material for writing.
Week 3 — Memory and Time
Experimenting with the ways time reshapes memory and narrative.
Week 4 — Memory and Place
Considering how environments, past and present, shape memory and serve as material for writing.
Week 5 — Private Languages
Developing personal codes, motifs, and recurring images to shape memory into art.
About the Instructor
Alex Wolfe is a writer and artist from Iowa. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, and his work is held in the collections of the New York Public Library and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. He is the former editor of Pedestrian, a magazine for people who like to walk, and his projects have been featured in Grist, Untapped Journal, and NPR.
He has led workshops and guest lectured for Princeton University, the Swiss Institute, the Municipal Art Society of New York, and Parsons School of Design. He writes the newsletter Pedestrian and is currently at work on his debut novel, Repeater.