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  • Workshop
  • Online: Zoom
  • Adult (18+)
  • 7 Weeks

Intro to the Personal Essay

No Longer Enrolling

  • $355.00 Non-Member
  • $340.00 Member

Class Description

Ready to get your life stories out of your journal and into the world? If you want to learn the art of writing personal essays, but have no idea where to begin (or you need a refresher), this course is for you. Over four weeks, you will learn the essentials of the personal essay and put them into practice by writing your own drafts. Each week, we will discuss an element of craft, including scene and summary, reflection, narrator and character, and description. We'll study published examples from authors like Brenda Miller, Kiese Laymon, CJ Hauser, Krys Malcolm Belc, Mark Doty, Alexander Chee, and more. To put what we learn into practice, we’ll use prompts and different essay forms to inspire our own drafts. During the second half of the course, you’ll have the chance to workshop and revise at least one essay draft with the class. By the end of the course, you will have generated at least two essay drafts and the insight and inspiration to continue developing your essays.

Please Note: Class Does Not Meet on November 9th and November 23rd (Thanksgiving Day).

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.

Scholarships Format/Location

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.