Intro to Speculative Memoir
June 2026 / Facilitated by Ern Rivera
Virtual, via Google Meet Hosted by fifth wheel press on June 28, 2026
Overview
As the boundaries between genres continue to blur, the cross-genre blend called speculative memoir has emerged as a powerful tool for writers seeking to “tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Instead of asking our retellings of reality to stick to the details as they occurred, speculative memoirs encourage us to imagine history-writing as being more like our memories: complex, fluid, and tangled up with dreams, myths, and fantasies.
This workshop explored speculative memoir, an exciting and emerging genre that has its roots in a variety of experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to historical writing.
Together, we:
- traced the genre’s historical roots as a means for engaging with histories that have been erased, destroyed, or otherwise distorted by different forms of power, oppression, and violence;
- read excerpts from recent entries in the genre; and,
- built a toolbox of strategies and prompts for writing speculative memoir ourselves.
Content
During this two-hour workshop, we examined excerpts from:
- The Story Game by Shze-Hui Tjoa;
- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado;
- Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde; and
- The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals by Samuel R. Delany.
The asynchronous version also looks at the methodology used by Saidiya Hartman in Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, itself a product of speculative archival work that Hartman calls “critical fabulation,” as well as a new form of speculative memoir called “autofabulation,” which I develop in my forthcoming book, The Ecology of Art, Strike!.
Finally, we worked through a series of prompts that allowed participants to walk away from the workshop with initial drafts of flash pieces in the genre.
Availability
This workshop will be held live by fifth wheel press via Google Meet.
An asynchronous version will be available via Itch.io in July 2026.
Compensation
Workshop sales were split three ways between fifth wheel press, fifth wheel press's workshop coordinator, and the workshop facilitator. 100% of sales of the asynchronous version go to the facilitator.