Creative Essay Writing: Explore the Personal & Powerful Specialization

Everyone has a story to tell. Join best-selling author Roxane Gay to find your story, craft your truth, and write to make a difference.

Roxane Gay is a writer, professor, and editor known for her honest, thoughtful writing on race, gender identity, culture, and more. She is the author of the New York Times best-selling essay collections Bad Feminist and Hunger, as well as the nationally best-selling Difficult Women. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney's and Tin House, and she is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. How does such powerful writing come to be? This course is an insightful, inspiring look at how to transform your story into a powerful personal essay. Learn how to craft your personal voice with wider context—and write to connect with the people you want to reach. By sharing her meditative, thoughtful approach to the craft of writing, Roxane invites you to take yourself seriously as a writer, empowering you to share your passion, take a stand, and make an impact on the world around you. Packed with practical guidance, actionable tactics, and example essays, 8 video lessons will take you from first idea to a final, publication-ready work. Throughout, Roxane will help you: * Find a specific purpose for telling your story * Connect your work to larger conversations and timely themes * Conduct crucial research to support your work * Navigate personal memories to write your truth * Write and revise your final work * Submit your work for publication Plus, the class includes a downloadable worksheet to support your ongoing creative nonfiction writing practice, as well as links to additional resources. This class is for everyone with a desire to write. Whether you want to finish your memoir, develop your writing craft, or explore putting pen to paper for the first time, your voice matters. This class is a jumpstart to finding your voice, your story, and sharing it with the world. It's your time to begin! Let's begin! Instructor bio: Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times best-selling Bad Feminist, the nationally best-selling Difficult Women and the New York Times best-selling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects.

The rise of sites like Medium and Longreads have inspired a resurgence in creative nonfiction—that compelling, leisurely writing that weaves true ideas and characters into stories that reveal as much about its readers as its subject. But where do those stories come from? And how do they work?

In this class, Susan Orlean, best-selling author and longtime New Yorker staff writer, walks us through her writing process for transforming ordinary subjects into exceptional stories. She reveals how she prepares to write, takes a close look at her classic Esquire piece “The American Male at Age Ten,” and delves into why curiosity, revision, and collaboration are at the heart of being a writer. This course demystifies the writing craft so that you can write a short and unforgettable profile of your own. Whether you’re an active writer, aspiring freelancer, or simply curious about the power of language, this class will help you navigate and polish the creative process of telling your best story. Instructor bio: Susan Orlean is an acclaimed American journalist. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Esquire. She is the author of eight books, including The Orchid Thief (later adapted into Spike Jonze's Adaptation, in which Meryl Streep portrayed Orlean) and the New York Times bestseller Rin Tin Tin. She was a 2004 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. In 2012, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan. She has served as a judge for many literary prizes, including the National Book Awards, the Bellevue Literary Prize, and the Iowa Review Awards. Susan divides her time between Los Angeles and New York. Her Twitter bio reads "Writer, writer, writer. Oh, I also write."

“This isn’t just a class that you take, it’s a way of life that you’re embarking on.”

Best-selling author and memoirist Dani Shapiro (Inheritance, Still Writing) invites you into her home (and her writing room) to discover what it truly means to cultivate the life of a writer. Whether you’ve set a goal to get published or are simply looking for a creative outlet, writing can be a healing ritual for all of us. With a calming mindset and easy methods that Dani uses herself, you’ll learn how to care for your gift, honor your need for self-expression, and create a lifelong, sustainable relationship with writing. Explore the three elements of the writing life with Dani: * The Mindset: Unlock the confidence to call yourself a writer and overcome any writer’s block, whether you’re published (yet!) or not. * The Craft: Discover tools and ways of thinking to hone your skills as a writer, and get more words down on the page. * The Practice: Create a ritual around writing that works for you, and learn to prioritize your writing as a sacred space in your life. Plus, each element is paired with a daily writing exercise that you are welcome to adopt in your own practice. Dani even guides you through a brief meditation in real time to help center your mind and jumpstart your writing day. Whether you’re sitting down with pen and paper for the very first time or have been writing steadily for years, this peaceful class will act as a respite for your creativity—a place to reset and recharge, find inspiration, and set your intentions—before you turn to a fresh sheet of paper and begin. Welcome to the writer’s life. This class is open to students of all levels. No writing (or meditation) experience needed—just a pen and paper. Instructor bio: Dani Shapiro is the author of the instant New York Times best selling memoir, Inheritance, which was published in January 2019 by Knopf. Her other books include the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Along with teaching writing workshops around the world, Dani has taught at Columbia and New York University, and is the cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. In February of 2019, Dani launched an original podcast, Family Secrets, in collaboration with iHeartMedia. An iTunes Top 10 podcast, the series features stories from guests who—like Dani— have uncovered life-altering and long-hidden secrets from their families’ past. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.