Form Is Your Friend: Crafting Creative Nonfiction

When we write creative nonfiction—whether memoir, literary journalism, nature writing or meditative essay—we’re creating art from experience. Each experience invites us to think about how best to shape that raw material into a piece of writing that resonates beyond us. In this class, we’ll examine the wide variety of forms available to the nonfiction writer—from the dramatic narrative to the braid to experimental structures—and we’ll begin to craft our own essays. Readings will include essays by John McPhee, Brenda Miller, Rebecca McClanahan, Dinty Moore and others. We’ll spend the first four weeks exploring and experimenting with the options and the last two weeks polishing one essay.