In this course, students will continue their explorations in reading and writing creative nonfiction. Specifically, we will delve into the lyric essay and various forms of memoir. What is the lyric essay, and why has it garnered such interest and traction over the last years? Integrating elements of the personal essay with poetic techniques like fragmentation, imagery, rhythm, and distillation, this prose hybrid has emerged as a beloved and experimental form employed in signal works by Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, Eula Biss, Jenny Boully, and many others. We will discuss this intriguing and flexible subgenre of creative nonfiction, its varieties and controversies. We will also examine a variety of memoir modes, including graphic memoir, speculative memoir, and memoir that borrows from other genres such as fairy tale, myth, or ghost story. We will explore the potential of these modes through our own weekly writing experiments. Students may begin new projects, or generate new pages for projects they are working on.

Additional writers may include Elissa Washuta, Carmen Maria Machado, Akwaeke Emezi, Alison Bechdel, Jami Nakamura Lin, Melissa Febos, and Amy Lin.