Writing Co-Lab

This wide-ranging class dips our toes into some of the many hybrid, genre-blurring forms available to nonfiction writers today. We’ll investigate a variety of structures (including hermit crabs and braided researched essays), experiment with incorporating visual imagery into our work (no art skills necessary!), and dive into the expansive possibilities of speculative nonfiction. We’ll ask: how can stepping outside the bounds create new radical possibilities for our work? What opportunities do such forms provide for those of us whose voices are traditionally marginalized? How can experimenting with form bring joy and curiosity back into our writing?

 
This six-week course, taught by Jami Nakamura Lin, the author of the illustrated speculative memoir The Night Parade (Mariner/HarperCollins), is generative in nature. Expect hefty craft lectures, writing exercises, and vibrant discussion of our own writing process and work. Over our six weeks, we’ll discuss the expansive possibilities and definitions of the genre, learn specific craft skills, and play with the freedom that hybridity offers. Students will leave the class with a set of draft exercises that can be expanded into longer pieces, and knowledge of craft techniques that can be used in further work.

 
We will also look at sample texts from Carmen Maria Machado, Victoria Chang, Sarah Minor, Claudia Rankine, Sofia Samatar, the anthologies Family Resemblances, Shapes of Native Nonfiction, The Shell Game, and others. Our excerpts are pulled from the small and independent presses publishing some of the most exciting and dynamic hybrid work today. (However, because the class is designed to be flexible for those who cannot read outside of class, more time is spent on lecture, examples, and discussion of our own work/process than on assigned reading.)

 
While students will have the opportunity to read their writing aloud and receive brief constructive feedback, this class does not follow a traditional workshop format. Our focus is in learning, creating, and speculating.

Expect 1-2 hours of recommended (but optional!) reading and one optional take-home writing exercise per week. (This class is still suitable for students who aren’t able to complete any material outside of class.) 

For an additional $50, students can meet with Jami for an hour to discuss up to 10 pages of their own work. Meeting must be scheduled within one month of class ending.