Class Description
Do you have a personal essay you’d love to see published, but aren’t sure how to take the next step? With so many outlets, styles, and submission processes out there, the world of personal essay publishing can feel confusing or closed off. But it doesn’t have to be.
How to Publish a Personal Essay is a supportive, information-rich seminar designed to help you navigate the contemporary essay landscape. Over the course of three hours, we’ll discuss what editors are looking for—from voice-driven, first-person narratives to more lyrical, braided, or reported personal essays. We’ll examine where different types of essays tend to land, and what distinguishes work published in various magazines and journals. We’ll also break down how to write a succinct, effective cover letter, how to format and submit your work, and how to research and track submissions in a way that supports your long-term writing goals.
You’ll have the chance to craft or refine a brief pitch, ask questions about the submissions process, and leave with a short list of publications that might be a strong fit for your voice and subject matter. We’ll also touch on rejection (it happens to everyone) and how to build a sustainable, confident relationship with the publishing process. Toward the end of class, we’ll share information about upcoming GrubStreet workshops and other resources that can help you continue developing and submitting your work.
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
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.