Personal Essay & Creative Nonfiction
Learn to compose thought-provoking personal essays and other creative nonfiction pieces about topics that interest you from today’s news to your favorite places in nature, family memories and more. The personal essay is short and can be serious, humorous, deep or light-hearted. It’s an excellent form for those who wish to publish a collection of their writings and also as an entry into other, longer creative nonfiction projects such as biography, travel writing, political or scientific writing. Personal essays appear as newspaper op-eds, short magazine articles, online posts, memoir chapters and in essay collections compiled by one author or another. In this workshop, writers will have the opportunity to work on their self-selected creative nonfiction projects. Handouts will be provided to offer examples, and writers will work on three new short essays (optional) for group and instructor feedback in this comfortable setting. Beginners are welcome and will be treated with TLC. Please bring pen, paper and, for the first session, a photo of a favorite place.