Class

Workshopping the Personal Essay

During this 8-week intensive, students will both workshop their peers' personal essays and dissect the craft of the Best American Essays of 2025, allowing the latter to inform the former. Using a template provided by the teaching artist, students will review work each week, receiving spoken and written feedback on at least two of their own pieces (more, if the class size permits) over the duration of the course from each other as well as the teaching artist.

The majority of each class session will be spent on workshopping, so students should come prepared to speak in a group as well as have their workshopping template filled out and ready to email to its recipient at the end of class. Two weeks ahead of class, the teaching artist will send out a sign-up sheet for workshopping dates along with the workshopping template and detailed instructions. One week ahead of class, the first group of workshoppees will send their essays out, so their fellow students can spend proper time on their feedback and be ready to go on day one.

Students will need to obtain "Best American Essays 2025, edited by Kim Dana Kupperman and Jia Tolentino" before class.

In this class, students will:
- Leave with written and spoken feedback on at least two personal essays
- Gain further knowledge of various craft concepts
- Gain comfort in the workshop setting, both as the critique and the recipient
- Increase confidence in their writing and revising skillsets

All Classes listed on the Loft website take place in Central Time.

Instructions for Accessing This Online Class

In order to access live class meetings, you must have the Zoom application downloaded to your computer. You will also need a WiFi/Internet connection throughout the duration of your scheduled meeting and a computer with audio and video capability. The information to join your Zoom classroom will be provided in your confirmation email upon registration. Please check spam folders if you do not see this email upon registration. For more information on how to use Zoom, please see our training manual here.

Some classes use a supplemental Google Classroom page. Should your teaching artist use Google Classroom, you will be invited to join the classroom via email at least 24 hours in advance of your class (check spam folders if you are not seeing this invitation). Please note that Google Classroom requires a Gmail address to access the Classroom. If you do not have a Gmail account, the email invitation will be sent to the email address we have on file and will prompt you to create a free account or enter an existing account to join the classroom. If we are unable to send an email invitation to your non-gmail account, you will be contacted by a staff member to provide a Gmail address. If you do not have a Gmail account, you can create a free account here. Should you have concerns about this, please contact a Loft staff member at [email protected] or 612-379-8999. For more information on how to use Google Classroom, please see our training manual here.