Class Description
This is a workshop for essayists who are ready to go deeper. Whether you're working towards a collection, have a draft or two ready for rigorous revision, or want to walk away with highly developed new essays, this workshop will help you move your essays closer to submission-readiness and publication.
Writers working in any length or form of the personal essay are welcome, whether you're developing short lyric pieces or long-form narrative work. We'll experiment with form, technique, voice, and structure, and build serious revision strategies along the way. Readings from exemplary essayists like Natalia Ginzburg, Teju Cole, Yiyun Li, Carmen Maria Machado and Michel de Montaigne will sharpen your eye and expand your sense of what essays can do.
By the end of the course, you'll have submitted and workshopped at least two pieces, receiving detailed feedback from both the instructor and your classmates each time.
This course is designed for experienced essay writers who have taken previous essay or narrative nonfiction workshops at GrubStreet or elsewhere. If you've done the foundational work and you're ready for the next level, this is the class for you.
Important Dates: The application deadline for this class is Tuesday, January 5th. All applicants can expect to hear back within one week of the application deadline. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be reviewed and will not receive a response. The payment deadline for admitted students is Thursday, January 14th.
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
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.