Workshop: Memoir Writing with Peter Bacho

Highly lauded author, Peter Bacho takes us on a journey to the Art and Craft of Memoir.

The class will emphasize the tools (dialogue, action, effective plot, climax, etc.) that fiction writers regularly use. Creative nonfiction (memoir) is like fiction in that it is another avenue for storytelling. Thus, a memoirist's overreliance on composition will not produce a satisfying work. attendees would work on different exercises, submit or present them, and receive feedback.

Bacho is the author of seven books: Cebu, Dark Blue Suit, Boxing in Black and White, Nelson's Run, Entrys, Leaving Yesler, and Uncle Rico’s Encore. His books have received several awards, including the 1992 American Book Award. He is an adjunct professor at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus. Bacho was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Seattle’s Central District.

As a child, he lived with his immigrant parents in migrant worker camps, traveling from harvest to harvest. Much of his youth was spent in Seattle’s blue-collar and multi-ethnic Central District, a place of hard lives and tough times. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school (O’Dea), then college, and finally law school. These experiences continue to inform his writing.