Class Description
"“Essay,” “memoir,” “creative nonfiction”: these terms can be slippery and difficult to define. This one-day course takes that slipperiness as its premise, exploring styles that fall outside traditionally conceived notions of nonfiction while still rooting themselves in factual events. Nonfiction that transforms into poetry, fiction that approaches factuality, and writing that slips between genres will all be read and practiced in this workshop. We will also talk about the ethics of departing from strict notions of fact.
Writing prompts, a mini-workshop, and reflection on your own nonfiction style will all play a role in this course. Students are encouraged to bring a real-life event you have been considering or writing about—and to be ready to expand your approach to that real-world event into genres you may not yet have considered.
Possible texts may include, but are not limited to: Wendy S. Walters, from Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal; Steven Dunn, Potted Meat; Jenny Boully, from Betwixt-and-Between; Lily Hoang, from A Bestiary; Selah Saterstrom, from Ideal Suggestions; Etel Adnan, from Journey to Mount Tamalpais; excerpts from The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.