Class Description
[Note: This class is by invitation only for writers recommended by instructors and/or application review committees.]
The memoir and essay forms present so many stylistic choices that can take a story from good to great. In this course, you’ll examine your work-in-progress with that evolution in mind. This 6-month class meets every other week and is designed for writers striving for advanced program admission and/or publication submission who want to hone their revision strategies, sharpen voice and style, and strengthen craft knowledge with the goal of making their future applications and manuscript submissions more competitive.
Through exploratory exercises, revision prompts, curated readings and discussions, you’ll explore ways to deepen and polish the writing you’ve already done, and discover new approaches to take your project further. The first portion of the class will dive into a combination of readings, craft discussions, and mini workshops of specific scenes and problem areas for targeted, on-the-spot feedback. Other than your own writing, the out-of-class workload will be lighter with the expectation that you’ll devote significant time to your manuscript revisions, applying key takeaways from class. Depending on the needs of the group, there may be optional between-class meetups for participants to write together or work though craft issues.
The final portion of the class will focus on deeper workshops where writers submit longer manuscripts in advance for classmates to provide thoughtful feedback on. At this phase, in addition to your own writing/revision, you can expect to read and provide written feedback on up to four peer submissions each week until the conclusion of the class. The biweekly class schedule of the course allows for the time to both write and review peers’ work.
By the end of the course, you’ll have gained actionable revision strategies, a more nuanced understanding of nonfiction’s unique challenges, a clearer set of revised pages and/or a larger revision plan, and a connection to a supportive community of fellow writers who share similar artistic goals.
Since this is an invitation-only class, there is no application. If you’ve received an invitation, you are welcome to register. Scholarships are available and reviewed on a rolling basis.
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.