Class Description
Everyone has a story to tell, but you might not always know how to tell it.
Do you have a personal story from your life that you would love to share with the world? A moment where you had a great epiphany, or experienced a huge triumph or loss? Maybe something funny or inconsequential that happened, but it ended up changing everything. Maybe you just have a burning question from your life and you’d love to write about it to explore some potential answers.
In this class, we will look at various techniques for writing personal essays, using true personal stories that work as a jumping-off point to explore larger, universal themes. We will discuss how to take an event from your life, give it a narrative structure, and tie it into larger questions and themes that will make your essay deliver a big emotional punch. You will leave the class with a basic framework of what a personal essay is and how they can be structured, why readers love them, and ideas for how to get started writing your own. We’ll read examples from well-known essayists like Roxane Gay, David Sedaris, and others, and time permitting, we may be able to do a little brainstorming and pre-writing in class.
Class Format
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Scholarship Information
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 more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
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.