Class Description
You read the New York Time's Modern Love or Lives column religiously. Or you're a huge fan of The Best American Essays anthologies. Whatever form your obsession takes, you find yourself drawn to the personal essay and constantly wanting to know, How'd they do that? so that you can write your own essays. In this three-hour class, we'll start off by defining what a personal essay is (and is not!) and examine the qualities all strong personal essays share courtesy of Phillip Lopate's instructive anthology, The Art of the Personal Essay. We'll also discuss ways to approach writing our own personal essays, and do a few related writing exercises to get you thinking in the right direction. Come to class armed with your questions, curiosity and readiness to dive deep into the personal essay. And don't forget a notebook and pen!
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. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Zoom Participation:
Students are not required to turn their camera on, but are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable through functions such as the live chat, emoji reactions, and unmuting the microphone. Learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
We ask that instructors enable closed captioning and send a transcript of the session after class. You can also enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting. If your instructor forgets to send the transcript, just send ’em an email!