ARCHIVE FOR Jonathan Escoffery

Grub Instructor Jonathan Escoffery believes it's important to "give back" to the literary community that sustains his own work. But where's the line between giving enough and giving too much? Originally published at The Writers Room of Boston, where Jonathan is the current Ivan Gold fellow.

This summer, GrubStreet instructor Jonathan Escoffery found much more than a workshop at the Kimbilio retreat for writers of the African Diaspora. Describing that transformative week to his white peers, however, was not always a positive experience.

 

Groups of writers can be competitive, cagey, and unwilling to share what they know, but when Grub Instructor Jonathan Escoffery came to Boston, he found the supportive community he'd been looking for. Teen writers can catch Jonathan in person on Saturday, October 21st, in his YAWP class, Publishing Your Short Work: Submission Tips to Get Your Work Out There! This essay was originally published by The Writers' Room of Boston, where Jonathan is the 2017 Ivan Gold Fellow.

 

When I arrived in Boston three years ago, it was my second cross-country move as an adult. The first took me …

Traditionally rejected in workshop spaces as distracting, or interrogative, the second person in fiction finds its defender in Grub Instructor Jonathan Escoffery. You can catch Jonathan in person on Saturday, June 17th, in his free workshop, Misunderstood: Inverting the Workshop Model (register here). This essay was originally published by The Writers' Room of Boston. 

 

Lately, I’ve been questioning the use of the second person point of view in fiction. The you pronoun features prominently in my collection, but as I work on what I hope will be the manuscript’s final story, I’m finding myself …