Class Description
In this class, we'll dive into the neglected, misunderstood, and underrated skill of revision. Just finished a personal essay you're wildly proud of, but not sure you got the ending right? In love with your musings and own voice, but don't know, exactly, what your story is about? Terrified to cut a pretty sentence, or rearrange a scene, lest the whole essay fall to pieces? This is the class for you. In this course, each writer will submit to workshop at least twice. Your first submission will be a first draft--a beautiful, messy pile of uncut inspiration--and your second will be a revision of that essay, once you've gotten some feedback from the workshop and reflected on how you can improve it. There may be time to also workshop shorter essays, excerpts and exercises. The rest of our time will be dedicated to the discussion and analysis of the other craft elements; reading and discussing a wide range of personal essays; and conversations about the publishing landscape for personal essays. Authors whose work we may look at include Melissa Febos, Cathy Park Hong, Brian Broome, Jo Ann Beard, John Paul Scotto and Ira Sukrungruang.
It is recommended that you have some workshop experience prior to applying for this course. Space is limited to nine writers.
Please Note: Class does not meet on July 13th.
Important dates:
The application is now closed. Applications submitted after May 22nd will not be reviewed.
The payment deadline for admitted students is Monday, May 29th.
To apply, please click the red "SEE DIRECTIONS TO APPLY" button in the top right corner of this page. This application will ask you to detail your workshop experience; copy your answer to question 1 from the application and paste it into this field. This page will also ask you to upload a writing sample. Your writing sample and application (from step 1) should all be contained in a single document. Use the "choose file" button to locate your combined application and writing sample. Once you have located and uploaded your combined application & writing sample, click the "Apply" button. You will receive a confirmation email once our system has received your submission.
Class Format
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Scholarship Information
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.
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.