Class Description
Personal essays aren’t just about our own experiences or exploring universal truths; they can also be a way to inform an audience about a specialized topic. Are you an expert on climate change? Do you have a rare medical condition? Want to spread the word about something that’s important to you, but you’d rather not write an academic essay or an op-ed? In this seminar you will learn how to harness the personal essay as a teaching tool. Using published essays as our guides, we’ll examine how you can put a personal spin on heavy topics to make those issues interesting and accessible to a wide audience. Come to class with a subject you'd like to write about, and a list of pertinent information you'd like to share, and we'll begin working on the essays in class.
Part of GrubStreet's Special Topics in the Nonfiction, a group of classes dedicated to exploring different craft elements of creative nonfiction. For more class offerings, 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.