“How to Write About Family Members in Memoir & Personal Essays” with Mallary Tenore Tarpley
January 28 2026 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM CST
$59.00 – $119.00
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This Event is for Members only.
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$59 for Members
$119 for Non-Members
PLEASE NOTE: This class recording is now only available for purchase by our members from now until Tuesday, June 30 at 11:59 PM CT. The class recording will be made available to watch (and rewatch) until July 31, 2026. Become a member here.
Writing about family members is an art that requires a healthy mix of self-reflection, patience, acceptance, and vulnerability. Depending on your relationship with your family, the process may be painful or healing. In some cases, it may be both.
In this class, we’ll explore the tricky task of writing about family members in memoir and personal essay. To do so, we’ll examine specific examples that will inspire and instruct. Through a mix of instruction, engagement, and short writing exercises, you’ll learn strategies for deciding which family members to write about; how to interview family members and explore hard truths; how to show loved ones’ full humanity by writing about their flaws and strengths; how to write about strained relationships; how to reckon with conflicting memories from family members; how (and whether) to show your copy to family members prior to publication, and more.
You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about these topics and more, and you’ll come away from this class with practical tips and newfound inspiration to carry you forward in your writing.
TAKE THIS CLASS IF:
- You’re working on personal essays involving family members.
- You’re writing a memoir, or considering writing one.
- You need help figuring out how to write hard truths about family members.
- You want guidance on how to interview family members for memoir or personal essay.
The deadline to buy this class recording is Tuesday, June 30 at 11:59 PM CT.
CONTINUING YOUR WRITING JOURNEY
SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
The WLT is committed to making our online classes accessible to all writers including writers who do not have the financial means to pay for programming. Five (5) seats in this class have been set aside for scholarship recipients to attend free of charge. Please fill out this application no later than 2 days prior to the class to be considered for one of the scholarship seats. We do not ask for any corroborating documents; we only ask that you help us understand your situation. If you are selected for one of the available seats you will be notified via email (from wlt@writersleague.org) no later than 24 hours before the start of the class. Please note, each writer is limited to no more than four (4) total scholarship seats per catalog season.
Instructor
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Mallary Tenore Tarpley is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches a variety of courses on longform feature writing, nonprofit journalism, solutions journalism, personal essay writing, and more.
Previously, Mallary was the associate director of UT Austin’s Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas; executive director the nonprofit Images & Voices of Hope; and managing editor at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Mallary’s articles have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and TIME Magazine, among other publications. She has led writing trainings for news outlets around the world and for organizations such as The Poynter Institute, the Society for Features Journalism, and the Writers’ League of Texas.
Her new book SLIP explores the under-discussed complexities of eating disorders and recovery from them. Equal parts memoir and journalism, the book weaves together Mallary's own narrative with perspectives from clinicians, researchers, and others with lived experience. SLIP is the winner of the Association of American Publishers' 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences. The Association also selected SLIP as a first-place winner in the Medicine Category and as a finalist in the Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher Category.
Mallary received a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the science-related reporting in the book, specifically around the neurobiological and genetic aspects of eating disorders.
You can keep up with Mallary via her newsletter, "Write at the Edge," which features weekly writing tips and best practices: mallary.substack.com.
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Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
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Accessibility Policy
Closed captioning is available for all online classes and special events.
The WLT is committed to making its programs & services accessible to all writers. Please contact us at wlt@writersleague.org or at 512-499-8914 for more information or to discuss accommodations you may need.
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Writers’ League of Texas classes and workshops are also funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts – Investing in a Creative Texas. For more information, go to www.arts.texas.gov.