I’m happy to announce that I’m carrying out the year with a culinary micro-memoir class. Our memories associated with food, eating, cooking, meals, and kitchens will serve as a portal into writing stories about our lives. You do not need any special experience with food, cooking, or food writing to take this class, just a willingness to read, write, and give and receive written feedback.

***Please Note: This class is asynchronous, which means that there are no live video meetings. The course is fully online, remote, and conducted through email. We do not meet together on Zoom; you work at your own pace within weekly deadlines. If you are looking for a class that takes place on Zoom, you may be interested in my synchronous class, Micro-Memoir: Live!***

Dates: Five weeks, November 26th to December 24th, 2020 (between Thanksgiving and Christmas, for those who celebrate those holidays).

Cost: $50-$250, sliding scale. Pay what you can afford. I am also happy to offer two scholarship spots in this class; you can indicate your interest on the sign-up sheet.

Sign up for Culinary Micro-Memoir here.

Student Responsibilities:

• Each Thursday morning, you will receive a short reading in your inbox and a prompt for your writing assignment.
• You will have five days to turn in your writing (600-1,200 words) by each Tuesday at midnight.
• Each Wednesday morning, you will be placed in a group with two other writers. You will read their micro-memoirs and give them casual feedback. In turn, you will receive feedback from your group and the instructor. (The weekly deadline for feedback is each Thursday night with a grace period until the weekend.)

Time Commitment: Expect to spend at least 3-6 hours per week on this class, though some students have spent up to 10 hours a week on reading, writing, and responding to classmates.

Schedule and Tentative Curriculum:

• Week beginning November 26th—Inside the Kitchen
  • Writing about culinary spaces.
• Week beginning December 3rd—You, the Food Reviewer
  • Repurposing the “review” form as a unique angle for memoir writing.
• Week beginning December 10th—Repurposing Recipes
  • Using the recipe form as a literary “hermit crab” shell for creative writing.
• Week beginning December 17th—”Bring Your Lunch”
  • Considering the concept of lunch breaks as a spring board for short-form nonfiction.
• Week beginning December 24th—Where Food Comes From
  • Exploring food origins.
• Optional: Early January—Opportunity to share your work with your friends! Live class reading on Zoom.

Sign up for Culinary Micro-Memoir here.

Who is teaching this class? 

Freesia McKee is a writer, teacher, coach, and editor. She’s taught writing classes at Florida International University, Johnson & Wales University, the Loft Literary Center, and independently. Since May of 2020, more than 50 students have participated in Freesia’s online micro-memoir classes. Freesia is author of the chapbook How Distant the City. Her writing has recently appeared in the Grabbed Anthology, Cleaver Magazine, Pandemic Meditations, k’in, Zone 3, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, and elsewhere. Freesia is a book reviewer and the essays editor for South Florida Poetry Journal.