Class Description
Sometimes the source of conflict in a personal essay can be internal -- the author-character is struggling with herself. When crafting these essays, a balance must be struck. Through radical honesty about one’s past failings, we inspire interest, win sympathy and demonstrate genuine growth. But how much is too much? In this class, we’ll use storytelling exercises to spark our creativity and we’ll draw upon published essays for examples that hit that sweet spot. And we’ll embark on the brave work of telling our own stories.
Possible texts:
“Hear Something, Say Something: Navigating The World Of Racial Awkwardness” (various authors, NPR)
“How Much My Novel Cost Me” by Emily Gould
“My Family’s Slave” by Alex Tizon
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.