Class Description
Sometimes the smallest moment–or the shortest essay–holds the greatest revelation. In this class, each week you will write a personal essay between 500 and 1,000 words modeled on exemplary published essays provided by the instructor, some contemporary, some from the vast history of the personal essay. Each weekly essay assignment will experiment with subject matter, focus, voice, and especially form and structure (narrative, lyric, fragmented, topical/timely, flash, etc.). Weekly in-class generative writing exercises will allow you to practice new craft techniques and put into practice what you're learning. Brief discussions of short, contemporary published essays including work by such authors as Barbara Kingsolver, Leslie Jamison, and Colson Whitehead will illuminate craft topics and enhance your ability to discuss each other’s work. One or two students will submit their work in advance of each class for a full workshop, while all other students will read aloud from their essay and receive immediate feedback. Students will also receive written comments from the instructor on all their submitted essays. By writing in a shorter format, you’ll learn to write quickly, generate a lot of material, and heighten your storytelling skills.
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.