What does it look like to write beyond: beyond genre and form conventions, beyond what other people have told us a writing life should look like, beyond our doubts? Over our eight weeks together, we’ll investigate these questions and others. In this more advanced class, we’ll focus on:

1) developing our writing through craft lectures (on topics like language, voice/style, shape and structure, speculation, revision, accountability, and publishing), assigned readings, discussion, and workshops
2) providing a supportive community that will together learn how to provide encouraging, specific feedback tailored towards the writer’s specific questions and goals
3) applying the feedback we receive in order to fruitfully revise (and work towards publishing, if that is our goal)
4) and creating a sustainable writing practice that fits with the realities of our lives—whether we are parents, disabled, chronically ill, hold multiple jobs, etc.

While our talks and assigned texts will be from the realm of lyric, hybrid, experimental, and speculative nonfiction, students writing other forms of creative nonfiction—including more “conventional” or narrative nonfiction—are welcome.

The first two weeks include learning about each other and setting goals, discussing assigned readings, and listening to craft lectures. Each of the last six weeks will be split between craft talks/discussion and workshopping student drafts.

Workshop Fit:

This class is for writers who have an ongoing project (whether short-form or a longer manuscript). Writers will be expected to submit work twice (up to 10 pages per submission) and can expect 1-2 hours of weekly reading outside of class (including published texts and your peers’ submissions). Classroom/workshop experience is recommended, but not necessary.

Workshop Format:

No cone of silence here—writers can participate in their own workshops. Each workshop will be guided by the individual writer’s needs and questions, and the writer can choose from several feedback formats, based on their goals. Each class includes a 10 minute break.

Syllabus:

Assigned texts may include excerpts by Akwaeke Emezi, Kai Cheng Thom, Felicia Rose Chavez, Carmen Maria Machado, Claudia Rankine, Elissa Washuta, Matthew Salesses, and Jane Alison, among others.

Weeks 1-2: The first two weeks include: learning about each other and setting goals, discussing assigned readings, and listening to craft lectures. We’ll go over best workshop practices (developed in texts like The Anti-racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez and Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses) so we all can learn to be better editors and feedback-givers.

Weeks 3-8: The first half of each class includes a craft lecture, discussion, and (if time) a generative exercise. The second part of class focuses on workshopping two writers’ submissions. (If you miss a class, I ask that you email feedback to the writers who were workshopped that day, in the spirit of reciprocity and generosity.)

Writing Beyond: Creative, Hybrid, and Speculative Nonfiction Workshop, 8 sessions with Jami Nakamura Lin