This Time It’s Personal: Memoir and Life Writing
with Kamal Al-Solaylee
Ever feel like you have personal story worth narrating? In this workshop series with Kamal Al-Solaylee, we’re rolling in the deep to explore, shape, and perhaps make sense of your personal stories through memoir and life writing. Whether you’re writing for publication, posterity, or personal reflection, we’ll help you find your voice (even if it’s currently whispering anxieties), craft compelling prose, and connect with others through the universal language of personal experience.
Registration closes 15 June 2025, 11.59pm SGT or when full capacity is reached.
Course Information
Course Code: WS-KA
Duration: 3 hrs per session
Recommended For:
Intermediate and Advanced Writers
Dates
5 July, Sat
1.00pm to 4.00pm (3 hrs)
12 July, Sat
1.00pm to 4.00pm (3 hrs)
19 July, Sat
1.00pm to 4.00pm (3 hrs)
26 July, Sat
1.00pm to 4.00pm (3 hrs)
Venue
In-Person
ACC EduHub
51 Cuppage Road
S 229469
Please Note
- Each registration submission is for one participant only.
- Participants are required to attend all four sessions.
- Registrants will undergo a selection process, and those selected must complete payment to confirm their placement.
- ACWP will maintain a waiting list once the maximum number of participants is reached.
- Shortlisted participants will be contacted for payment and confirmation.
Overview and Learning Outcomes
- Explore different structures and approaches to conceiving, pitching, writing and polishing long personal essays
- Take a detailed look at the art of memoir and life writing at different lengths – from shorter pieces to book-length manuscripts
- Navigate the challenges of mining your life as a source for your art, including such significant aspects as recalling and reconstructing the past; the limits of personal memory; and the uncomfortable but necessary sharing of intimate thoughts and feelings
- Learn more about transitioning into the life (and income model) of a professional writer
Who Should Apply?
Writers, including:
- Intermediate Writers: Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full-time or part-time career with serious, professional intent but are not yet published with a mainstream or recognized independent publisher.
- Advanced Writers: Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognized independent publisher, and/or have been published in at least one literary journal or anthology.
Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the ACWP. A waiting list will be maintained.
Registration and Pricing
Course Pre-requisites
To sign up, please register at the link above and provide the following documents:
- A 500 word writing sample (in English)
- A short summary of your writing project (approximately 100 words)
- A brief biography (50 to 100 words)
If you have registered with us before, you may resubmit the same information with an updated biography.
Course Fees
- $150 for adults
- $60 for senior citizens aged 55 and above, NSFs, and unemployed individuals
- Free for students from Singapore institutions, including undergraduate and postgraduate students
Fees are non-refundable.
For all other inquiries including financial assistance, please email us.
About Kamal Al-Solaylee
Vancouver-based Kamal Al-Solaylee is the author of the bestseller Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, winner of the 2013 Toronto Book Award and a finalist for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Canada Reads and for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards for Nonfiction. His third book of nonfiction, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From, was published in 2021 and was named Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail and CBC Books. His nonfiction books mix personal narrative with geopolitics and field reporting.