Online Class | The Art of the Personal Essay [Beth Slattery]
VIDEO: This class will take place via video-conferencing (Zoom).
All Levels | In an effort to better understand the personal essay, we will study classic and contemporary pieces and investigate uses of voice, characterization, description, humor, and structure in our own work. This course will include substantial discussion about the different types of personal essay, including contemplative, travel, and lyric essays, as well as others. We will have a robust workshop and a generative exercise each week. Students will leave with a polished personal essay of up to 20 pages and extensive feedback from classmates and the instructor. Authors we will look at include: James Baldwin, Scott Russell Sanders, Richard Rodriguez, Joan Didion, and Lia Purpura.
The teacher of this course will be adapting curriculum to offer an online option should preventative measures against coronavirus, such as social distancing, prevent the class from being in-person. We are in uncertain times, but want to make the experience accessible and worthwhile, and are planning for that in advance!
FAQ
Complete FAQMost classes are offered at a general and member tuition rates based on instruction hours, with Hugo House members receiving a 10% discount on classes fewer than six sessions.
Early bird discounts are available during the first two weeks of registration and apply to both general and member tuition rates.
To help provide financial accessibility to our class offerings, some classes each quarter are offered with a sliding-scale tuition model, allowing students to pay what they can for the class. For these classes, tuition increments starting at $5 and going up to 125% of the standard pricing will be listed on the page.
Hugo House will only process refund requests that are submitted 5 business days or more before the class start date. To request a refund, log in to your account, go to “My Account,” select the “Orders” tab on the left-hand side, click the appropriate order, and request a refund for your specific class. Administrative fees apply. Please see our full refund policy here.
We do not record classes. However, an exception if a student has specific access needs.
We encourage students to only sign up for classes that fit with their schedule.
We do not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic or any other oppressive behaviors, regardless of who commits them. Please check out our full community guidelines by clicking here. If an instance of community guidelines are violated and not resolved within the classroom, students may let us know by filling out the student incident report.
Classes may be cancelled if less than the minimum number of students are enrolled within ten days before the class start date. If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, students can choose between receiving a full credit toward future classes or full refund.
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