Classes & Workshops

"Next-Level Creative Nonfiction: Elevating Essays, Memoir, Travel Writing & Literary Journalism"
online at Writers.com
ten-week class
next session begins February 23, 2020
(following session will begin September 2020, date TBA)
Each week, we’ll explore one essential element of creative nonfiction:

1. crafting good questions,
2. research strategies,
3. the narrative arc,
4. the first-person narrator,
5. strong character development,
6. true-to-life scenes,
7. self-editing techniques, and
8. that elusive thing called “style.”

Eight weeks begin with a new "key" to nonfiction prose; two weeks are devoted to developing a first draft of your work on nonfiction and then revising it.

We’ll dissect great examples from masters of the genre – including James Baldwin, Jo Ann Beard, Annie Dillard, Joan Didion, Zora Neale Hurston, George Orwell, Luis Alberto Urrea, Alice Walker, and David Foster Wallace, looking at the gorgeous rooms they unlock with these eight keys to fabulous nonfiction. And then you will each roll up your sleeves and get to writing, putting new skills to work in your nonfiction prose. All literary nonfiction genres, from memoir to literary journalism to lyric essay, are welcome. This online course will include short weekly assignments, with feedback from your peers and from the instructor, and culminate with each writer drafting and revising a 3,000-word nonfiction work. Register at the writers.com website.

Note: This course is also available and a self-paced course with individualized feedback from Wendy. Contact writers.com director Fred Meyer for more information.

See the events page for reading and talks.