Class Description
Artists have long been warned not to quit their day jobs. In this six-hour course, we’ll think about how you can use your day job, your hobby, or your passion as an important perspective for your essays. Writers as diverse as Thomas Lynch (“The Undertaking”) and Atul Gawande (“Complications”) have shown that the act of describing their lives at work helps them think about and write about their own unique perspectives on the big issues of life and death with precision and responsibility. This can be true of any writer with a day job or an avocation. The passions you pursue at work and at home show the lens through which you view the world. Are you a teacher, a designer, an advocate, a cyclist, or a dog walker? Using readings and exercises, we’ll uncover your vocational take on the world and get you started on describing the expertise that only you have. At the end of the day, you will have a list of possible essay topics and will have started on one or two pieces that showcase your love of work. While this class focuses on creative nonfiction essays, it’s also useful for fiction writers who want to explore the vocational perspective of a fictional character.
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. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.