The Most Personal Essay

In this class, we’ll study, write, and workshop short essays that delve deeply into the first person. We’ll focus on structure, narrative voice, and scene to cultivate vulnerability without self-indulgence, pathos without sentimentality, sharing without oversharing. We’ll use essays from The New York Times Magazine’s “Lives” and The New York Times’ “Modern Love” columns as models; at the end of the course, students will be encouraged to submit their essays to one or the other publication.