Online Class | Creative Nonfiction III

In CNF III, we’ll meet on Zoom and over email together to: articulate our writing goals and intentions; read and discuss lyric essays and memoir excerpts by writers like Alexander Chee, bell hooks, and Melissa Febos; integrate research into your work; and turn in both a draft and a revision to me, as well as to your classmates. We will also free-write from prompts together and have opportunities to check in on where we are at regarding social isolation, fear, anxiety, and developing ongoing writing practices.

You don’t have to have taken CNF I or II to take part; you just need to know a few basics when it comes to writing prose (for example, you know what I mean when I use words like scene, reflection, point of view, structure, themes, metaphor), and to be willing to write from personal material in community.

Why bother writing during these times, you may ask. And I will say: Because it feeds us. Because we need to. Because expressing all of our complicated feelings, stories, and connections—and hearing the stories of others alongside us—allows us to release tension, to feel heard, to give back, and to be more free.