Class Description
Has the feedback you’ve received been confusing or overwhelming? Have you received a rejection from literary agents, journals, or book editors? Do you feel stuck as to what to do next with your nonfiction? This uniquely structured workshop will aim to turn your struggles and obstacles into a newfound direction for your projects or manuscript. Through a combination of workshops, in-class discussion, writing time, and one-on-one mentorship from the instructor, you will gain a clearer perspective on what’s been getting in your project’s way and how to potentially overcome it. The course is designed to reenergize your writing and dig into the individual revision components that can set your work on the path toward success.
This workshop will also include written feedback on your query or pitch letter from a literary agent, as well as a class visit from a nonfiction editor. Below is how the class has been designed:
Phase I: Forensic Assessment (3 weeks)
- Each participant will spend time sharing their struggles—rejection stories, personal obstacles, confusing feedback, etc—and get perspective from the group and the instructor on how to engage with those experiences in a more productive way.
- Participants will share in advance a sample of their writing with which they’ve experienced these obstacles. They will get some initial group impressions and a an honest verbal assessment from the instructor.
- Participants will then share their project goals to help guide the workshop discussions later in the class.
Phase II: Direction & Implementation (3 week break)
- Participants will have a one-on-one meeting with the instructor to discuss their goals and anything relevant that came out of the first three class meetings.
- They will work on individually prepping their workshop pieces based on the initial assessment.
- Class time will be used as self-monitored writing hours, in which class members will write and share together on their own.
Phase III: Evaluation and Encouragement (6 weeks)
- The primary focus during this phase will be workshopping participants' pages.
- Participants will prep their pitch or query drafts to share with an agent for written feedback (coordinated by Grub program staff in collaboration with the instructor).
- A nonfiction editor will visit the last class for the first hour to answer questions from the group.
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.