Class

Lit!Series Intensive Workshop: Finding Your Essay's Compass—Orientation Tools for Crafting Lyric Essays

Lyric essays can seem impenetrable at first, but when done well, they have a beating heart inside of them. We'll first look at examples of published essays with innovative structures and poetic language, then we'll take the tools we've learned and apply them to workshop participant's essays in order to excavate each essay's own beating heart.

Participants can be prepared to read authors such as Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, Anne Boyer, Brian Doyle, Elissa Washuta, etc. The reading list will be tailored to craft elements and themes reflected in participant submissions, and all readings will be sent to participants in advance of the workshop. Once registered, you will be able to submit up to 10 pages of work (double-spaced, 12 pt font).

Through analysis of the published essays as well as workshops of the participants' own nonfiction, participants can expect to take away a better understanding of essay structures—how form is used to both serve and uplift content—as well as a heightened attention to language at the sentence level. We'll read work that takes risks, either visually or at the sentence level, then discuss the various ways in which we can take meaningful risks in our own work. There will be a mix of discussion, workshop, and writing prompts with plenty of time for participants to share.

This workshop includes two lunch-time learning events, Saturday with Roxane Gay and Sunday with visiting agents Joy Tutela, Rayhané Sanders, Christopher Combemale and editor Emily Burns. You may add-on an optional lunch for both days or bring your own.

This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book.