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Summer Registration Opens May 18
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MEM 117 W — Crafting Resonance: Personal Essay Workshop

Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Mike Scalise
Duration: 10 weeks
Location: Online
Date(s): Jun 22—Aug 24
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
 
Class Meeting Time: 6:00—7:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1000
   
Refund Deadline: Jun 24
 
Unit(s): 2
   
Enrollment Limit: 18
  
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Quarter: Summer
Day: Mondays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 6:00—7:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 22—Aug 24
Unit(s): 2
Location: Online
 
Tuition: $1000
 
Refund Deadline: Jun 24
 
Instructor(s): Mike Scalise
 
Enrollment Limit: 18
 
Recording Available: Yes
 
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
 
 
Resonant personal essays possess an ephemeral quality, allowing them to transcend the particulars of a single life and speak to readers in a lasting way. This course will teach you how to achieve that effect. For inspiration, we will read personal essays by masterful essayists such as Roxane Gay, Kiese Laymon, and Jo Ann Beard, studying how each develops a distinctive voice and uses structure to shape lived experience. Through writing prompts supported by short lectures and guided workshops, you will practice shaping material from your own life into vivid and memorable scenes, with attention to structure, pacing, and point of view. Everyone will workshop two personal essays of up to 2,000 words for supportive feedback from the group and instructor. You will leave with a stronger grasp of personal essay craft and the ability to create polished, powerful work ready for further development or submission to journals.

MIKE SCALISE
Author

Mike Scalise’s memoir, The Brand New Catastrophe, received the Christopher Doheny Award from The Center for Fiction and praise from The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and The Baltimore Sun. He has written for The New York Times, Bon Appétit, The Paris Review Daily, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and was the Philip Roth Writer in Residence at Bucknell.