Breaking Form: Alchemies in Creative Nonfiction Structure [Melissa Febos]

Conventional essay forms offer us familiar containers in which to pour our content. And essays are traditionally driven by content. It’s a formula that works. The problem with formula is that it lulls the imagination and protects the psyche. Personal essays must find and face the hardest truths, and to do this we often must let go of the comfortable familiar. In this generative class, we will try out strange forms and oblique entry points and find the hidden corners of our content. We will surprise ourselves.