Class Description
Virginia Woolf maintained that the writer’s job was to represent life and the experience of living, whether the medium was fiction or non-fiction. Out of the fearless, flowing fabric of observation and feeling, Woolf composed short stories, literary criticism, novels, biography, and memoir which altered the boundaries between these genres. To her view, the tools for capturing “what we call life or spirit, truth or reality” (“Modern Novels”) evolved with history, language, social change, psychology and perception. Writing which streamed with impressions, “the incessant shower of innumerable atoms,” (“Modern Novels”) became her trademark—a mode which heralded modernism. Many of her methods have yet to be surpassed.
This workshop will introduce writers to a number of Woolf’s lyrical shorter works, and use her experiments in point-of-view, time, consciousness and character to embolden us in our own explorations of form. We will dip into her playground of expression—diaries and letters—to get in touch with “the soul or life within us. . . which is always saying the very opposite to what other people say” (“Montaigne”). In-class exercises will be designed to inspire.
Whether we take To the Lighthouse, The Common Reader, Roger Fry, Flush, or A Room of One’s Own for examples, we all have something to gain for letting our hair down and trying on voices, subjects and musings we’ve never dared before.
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.