Art of the Personal Essay/Creative Nonfiction
What recollections do you have when an old song triggers a memory? How do the smallest things start a line of thinking that takes you to the past or forward as you ponder the future? How often do you ask yourself, “I wonder why…?” Or say, “I was just thinking…” These thoughts are the simple beginnings of the personal essay, the comfortable writing genre that’s your route to bringing your thoughts, opinions, questions and ideas into the world — serious, light, humorous, or weighty. For writers interested in longer creative nonfiction projects, the personal essay is a solid foundation for those projects. The personal essay is not the 5-paragraph essay you learned in school but a more reflective form that takes the writer and reader on an unhurried stroll from first sentence to last. Personal essays appear as newspaper op-eds and columns, short magazine articles, online posts, memoir chapters, and in essay collections compiled by one author or another. The form is relaxed but has a structure which you’ll learn in this series. Handouts will provide examples, and writers will have the opportunity to workshop three short essays and one revision in this comfortable setting. (Workshopping is optional but encouraged.) Beginning writers are welcome. For those who have taken my earlier Personal Essay workshops, please be assured we’ll be using all new material! Please bring a favorite small object or photograph to the first class. With Molly Larson Cook.
When
Ongoing until Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Hours
| Wednesdays, 10am-12pm |