Class Description
You wrote a personal essay. Some people looked at it and commented on it, but now what? Now you revise!
If you’re a writer of creative nonfiction, chances are you’re a wee bit (or a lot) narcissistic, and that’s okay, but that can also sometimes get in your way. It’s in revision that you can tackle this, because that’s when you consider: How can I deepen my story? How can I push yourself to connect my story to the world? To current events, pop culture, sports, literature, history, etc?
The subconscious makes connections that we often don’t understand or trust, and as a result, those connections often don’t make it onto the page when we’re writing our first drafts, if ever. The purpose of this class is to help you:
- explore how we can follow and surrender to the connections, especially in the revision stage;
- do exercises to help us learn to open ourselves up to and trust our train of thoughts, no matter how random and odd;
- analyze and deconstruct nontraditional essay forms to explore how we can tell our stories in surprising and moving ways;
- read essays that have done this successfully;
- revise and workshop essays
You can expect to leave this class with two revisions of your essay, and the tools you need to get them ready to send out into the world.
This online class is classified as a workshop, which means students will form into cohorts to discuss each other's work weekly. Each student will also receive a comprehensive workshop from the whole class, plus the instructor, 2-3 times in the course of the class. Please expect to dedicate at least 5-7 hours a week to this class.
Please note that while our handy dandy "Schedule" tab states a 6-7pm class time, there are actually no live meetings for this class! Assignments and deadlines will be given by your instructor. Students will have access to the online class portal starting at 5pm on the first day of class. Instructions for logging onto the online portal will be emailed to registered students before 5pm the first day of class.
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.