In telling stories about the world around them and in drawing lessons from their lives, skilled memoirists and personal essayists offer their readers insight, artistry, self-critique, and honesty. Essays that really work are always about something bigger than their author. Not only do the most successful of such texts reveal something about the subject at hand and about the person writing them, but also about the one reading them.

In this workshop we will read the works of authors who elevate the personal voice to an art form, and taking inspiration from them, we will craft and workshop our own.

Although much of our work together will be asynchronous, we will use our reserved class time for synchronous  Zoom workshop discussions and meetings. Students should plan to reserve our assigned class time for these activities.