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  • Workshop
  • Adult (18+)
  • 5 Weeks

Writing From Real Life

No Longer Enrolling

  • $330.00 Non-Member
  • $305.00 Member

Class Description

Writers are observers, continually examining their lives and the lives of others. For memoir writers, and for those who write in other genres, life experiences become the raw material of their creative work. In this six-week course, we will focus on the key challenges in our lives today, and other hurdles we’ve overcome—in other words, difficult circumstances that might become the rich “raw material” for new work. We will discuss strategies for developing this material in a way that avoids the sentimental and general, and look at a number of short examples of how other writers (i.e., Didion, Ehrenreich, Sedaris) use essays as a way of making meaning of difficult circumstances. By the end of the course, you will have worked through a topic and be well on your way to writing about it (and potentially others) in a thoughtful and critical way.

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.