Teaching the Food Memoir

If you had to pick a genre of food writing that you are most drawn to, what would you pick? For me, it would be the food memoir. I mean it is after all a memoir where food is the lens through which the story is told. And who doesn’t like food stories, stories about food, stories with food…

Recently, I taught a five week course on writing the food memoir. The class was structured around those things I wish I had learned before embarking on my own food memoir writing journey. I introduced students to the food memoir genre and helped them explore how personal stories, memory, and cultural identity intersect with food. I’m currently working to restructure the course so that I can offer it online at some point, with a focus on African food writing.