“The godmother of creative nonfiction, Joan Didion, once wrote: ““The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream.”
In this creative nonfiction workshop, participants will be encouraged to follow their passions and tell the stories they are most drawn to. Through generative exercises and prompts, we will first focus on getting the dream onto the page. We will then explore how to “trick the reader into listening” through the building blocks of story, character, image, and theme.
Along the way, we will experiment with a variety of creative nonfiction formats, including personal essay, literary journalism, travel writing, and the lyric essay. We’ll also read and discuss a diverse range of pieces by writers such as Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Sarah Broom, Alexander Chee, Jo Ann Beard, and Charles D’Ambrosio. All levels of experience are welcome.
About the instructor
JESSICA WILBANKS is the author of the memoir When I Spoke in Tongues: A Story of Faith and Its Loss, published by Beacon Press in 2018, an excerpt of which appeared in The Guardian. She has received a Pushcart Prize as well as creative nonfiction awards from Ninth Letter, Sycamore Review, Redivider, and Ruminate magazine. Her essays have received Notable Mentions in Best American Essays and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and she was recently selected as a finalist for the PEN Center USA’s annual Literary Award in Journalism. Jessica received an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellowship and earned her MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, where she served as nonfiction editor for Gulf Coast.
By registering for an Inprint Writers Workshop you are agreeing to Inprint’s registration policies. Remember to sign up for the waiting list if the workshop you would like to take is full. To see the full Summer 2019 workshop schedule click here.
