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  • Seminar
  • Online: Zoom
  • Adult (18+)

Prayer As Prompt: Writing the Non-Preachy Spiritual Essay - Remote!

No Longer Enrolling

  • $150.00 Non-Member
  • $130.00 Member

Class Description

Religion is a part of everyone's life story in some way - even if they are non-religious or atheist. Using prayers of their choice as writing prompts, students will produce a short personal essay in this two-part, six-hour remote learning class. During part 1, students will read and analyze examples of spiritual essays that aim to tell a story, but avoid preaching. Using writing exercises, inspired by author Patty Dann’s Butterfly Hours and Bill Roorbach’s Writing Life Stories, students will develop their skills in storytelling, memoir writing, and crafting scenes, for most essays build off a wonderful scene. They’ll brainstorm ideas for their essay in the first class, get it started, then finish it at home. In part 2, students will share their work in a fun, workshop format, using Zoom’s ‘share screen’ and ‘whiteboard’ functions to help.

This class will be hosted using live Zoom meetings! You will be able to participate in class via Zoom videoconference from wherever you’re most comfortable. All you’ll need is a laptop or a phone! 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 via Zoom–no need to download anything or sign up for Zoom in advance! If you have questions about remote learning, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] for more information.

For a glimpse at how remote learning works, look no further than the deep Zoom discussion of writing and literature below:

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.

Scholarships Format/Location

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.