Essaying the Essay

While we may know of essays as personal narratives crafted with creative storytelling techniques, essay as a verb means an attempt. In this six-week series, we’ll explore a variety of essays under the creative nonfiction umbrella in an attempt to expand our entry points to writing and in an attempt to build community. Our evenings together will be spent analyzing essays by writers like Carmen Maria Machado, Hanif Abdurraquib, and Elissa Washuta, and we’ll spark the seeds of your own writing through prompt-based exercises. By week two, students will begin exchanging works-in-progress, and our class time will include an anti-racist, writer-centered workshop model.

Whether you’re interested in essays that blend cultural criticism or take shape as hermit crabs, or are still trying to figure it out, we’ll venture into the vast world of essaying with curiosity, play, and devotion.

A note on time: Students should expect to dedicate 2-3 hours outside of class per week on reading assigned essays and classmates’ work, in addition to maintaining a creative practice.

Access Program
We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class and Delve tuitions at a reduced rate.Most writing classes have at least one access spot available.

Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.