How long should a memoir chapter be? Where should it start, and how should it end? Knowing how to open and close chapters is an essential skill —one that craft talks often overlook. Through examples and analysis, we'll examine what makes a great opening, how to construct a strong closing, and how much should happen in between. Writers of fiction and memoir alike will learn to think of their chapters almost as short stories, and to pace them accordingly. Through casual workshopping, we'll gather feedback on some of our own openings and closing, and learn from the discussion about others' work, as well as our own.
BIO: BONNY REICHERT is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist. She has been an editor at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail. At forty, a now-or-never feeling in her bones compelled her to quit her job to enroll in culinary school. After that, she began to explore her relationship with food on the page, seeing her childhood in the restaurant business and her background as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor in a new light. Bonny holds a Master of Fine Art in creative nonfiction from the University of King’s College in Halifax and teaches writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Toronto with her husband Michael and little dog, Bruno. Her three almost-adult children come and go.
How to Share an Egg is a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2025) an NPR Best Book of the Year (2025), a CBC Best Memoir and a national bestseller.
