Class Description
Many of us were taught to write personal essays in the traditional way, where the events happen chronologically and we tell one story in a straight-forward way. What about those of us who did not learn storytelling this way?if you braid stories together, yours and your mother’s, your brother’s, you’re experimenting. If you’ve created an essay using a recipe, you’ve experimented. If you’ve jumped from one time period to another, and circled back, you’ve experimented. The aim of this class is to open up your writing by embracing this experimentation with form and structure. You’ll learn about the lyric essay—braided, collage, and hermit crab essays and more. Readings will include writing by Kiese Laymon, Jaquira Díaz, Grace Loh Pasad, Ocean Vuong, Linda Hogan and Robin Wall Kimmerer. Weekly in-class and take home generative writing exercises will allow you to practice new craft techniques and put into practice what you're learning.
Students will receive oral feedback on their essays during class workshops on alternating weeks (the schedule depends on class size); Students will also receive brief written feedback from the instructor.
Class Format
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!
Scholarship Information
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.
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!