This workshop is full. 

In this course, we will look at essays from Best American Essays 2014 and discuss how they handle narrative and scene, how they create an arc, what role “persuasion” plays, how to get the reader’s attention and empathy, etc. During the first four weeks, we will consider ideas, make a few starts, and write pitches. In the final six weeks, each writer will workshop one essay. Each week, we will do a writing exercise. The goal of the course is to have a working idea of how a personal essay functions when we live in a world of “topics” and information.