So you want to write an essay collection...
Most of the classes I teach outside of the university setting are single afternoon sessions, or a maybe month long at most. I love teaching these short and sweet courses, but I’ve been wanting for years to develop a long-term program—something immersive and cumulative that would see people through the development of a book-length project. And I’m so, so excited to finally share what I’ve been working on for several months now: a nine-month Essay Collection Incubator, starting in September!
Like all of my classes, this one was born out of challenges and questions and experiments in my own writing—basically, everything I learned about essay collections while writing First Love has been developed into mini craft lectures, prompts, and exercises for this incubator. And because the single most useful thing I did while writing my collection was closely read a ton of contemporary collections, reading and discussing published essay collections will be a pillar of this class. We’ll read six collections together, and guest authors including Melissa Febos (Girlhood), Kiese Laymon (How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America), Jill Christman (If This Were Fiction), and Esmé Weijun Wang (The Collected Schizophrenias) will join us to discuss their books and answer student questions about process and publication.
Participants will workshop 60 pages with the group across two submissions, and receive feedback on an additional 30 pages from me (that’s feedback on 90 pages total, for those keeping count). There will be generative exercises and revision exercises, and during the final few sessions we’ll direct our attention to publishing—working on book proposal materials and exploring, with the help of panels of guest agents and editors, the various paths to publication that authors of essay collections might choose.
It's going to be really fun. Check out the details here, and apply today! (Applications due July 15.)
And don’t worry, the short classes aren’t going anywhere either! Some one-offs (and one month-long) coming up this summer:
A one-day craft intensive for Tin House on writing the Personal/Critical Essay—using a work of art to tell a personal story. We’ll cover writing about art that you’ve had an evolving relationship with over time, art that made an immediate and striking impression on you, taking so-called “lowbrow” art seriously, and more.
Saturday, June 15, 1-4pm EST. $75. (That’s this Saturday!!)
Shaping a Narrative Around Questions for Corporeal Writing—in which I’ll present a concept I call “the internal arc,” and how a personal story can change when you lead with the internal (aka your shifting perspective and emotions) rather than the external “plot.” Students will then put this idea into practice with a series of exercises.
Saturday, July 13, 1-4pm EST. $150.
“Telling Shared Stories,” designed to help memoirists develop their own rules for which stories are theirs to tell, and how. We’ll tackle thorny issues like writing difficult people without flattening them into villains, how power dynamics in relationships change what it’s ok to share (like parent-child relationships vs. peers), when/if to share drafts with people in your life, and more.
Sunday, July 21, 1-4pm EST. $125.
A four-week Hybrid Memoir master class for Off Assignment—featuring Nicole Chung, Elissa Washuta, Jeanna Kadlec, and Chelsea Biondolillo talking about braided narratives, investigative memoir, using personal narratives to tackle social issues, and pushing beyond the boundaries of nonfiction all together.
Saturdays, August 3-24, 1-3pm EST. $400.
A short and sweet two-hour session for Story Studio’s “Pajama Seminars” series, on writing vivid scenes even when you can’t remember a ton of detail. I’ve presented this as a one-hour craft lecture a few times now, and am excited for this expanded version that will include some brief exercises.
Hi, I just saw this, too late to join your essay collection incubator. But other commitments this fall could have made it tough anyway. I hope you will offer this one again!!
Hi Lilly: Do you expect to offer this program again this year? Thanks!