Class Description
Writers are observers, continually examining their lives and the lives of others. For memoir writers, and for those who write in other genres, life experiences become the raw material of their creative work. In this six-hour course, we will focus on the key challenges in our lives today and other hurdles we’ve overcome—in other words, difficult circumstances that might become the rich “raw material” for new work. We will discuss strategies for developing this material in a way that avoids the sentimental and general, and we'll look at a number of short examples of how other writers (i.e., Didion, Ehrenreich, Sedaris) use essays as a way of making meaning of difficult circumstances. By the end of the course, you will have worked through a topic and be well on your way to writing about it (and potentially others) in a thoughtful and critical way.
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. Please visit the Resources tab to access the video-conference link.
Zoom Participation:
Students are not required to turn their camera on, but are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable through functions such as the live chat, emoji reactions, and unmuting the microphone. Learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
We ask that instructors enable closed captioning and send a transcript of the session after class. You can also enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting. If your instructor forgets to send the transcript, just send ’em an email!