This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House

 

The Personal Essay: Honing Your Craft

The personal essay is an intimate, conversational genre in which a writer’s self-awareness is as important a skill as a good ear is to a poet. It has everything to do with the essayist’s relationship to the reader. Whether you’re an old-hand or a beginner, the insights a workshop offers can be particularly helpful. Have you hit the mark, or overshot it? Is the tone you meant to strike in fact reflected on the page? How is the reader reacting to your words? These are tricky judgments, and fresh eyes can help save an attempt that might otherwise be abandoned.

In this class we’ll read widely, drawing from the work of both contemporary and classic essayists, finding ideas and inspiration and getting a feel for the genre’s parameters. Especially in the early weeks, we’ll do in-class exercises, and with the help of the workshop we’ll use them to plot out various directions in which these possible beginnings might take us. In later weeks, participants will present their essays-in-progress to the group. The instructor and class members will read them (at least twice!) and offer helpful reactions and tactful critique.