Courses

We all have images in our lives that haunt us: the cast covering your broken bones; the creek bed filled with childhood revelries. Because images are tied to memory, they can conjure incredible emotions or evoke feelings that seem impossible to name. In personal essays, a powerful image is often the foundation for a moving and memorable narrative. But how do we harness the images from our lives to craft a powerful and immersive reading experience? In this course, designed for writers of all levels, we will examine the ways other writers have used images to capture metaphor, serve as an organizing principle, or provide layers of meaning. We will ask ourselves how image informs scene work and how these building blocks translate to the singularity and universality of a nonfiction reading experience. We will read work by writers such as Tobias Wolff, Sandra Cisneros, and Claire Vaye Watkins, and we will examine our own memories to write a personal essay that moves readers. During the first half of the course, weekly writing exercises will cultivate your voice and style while generating ideas. In the second half, we will workshop our own essays of up to 3,000 words.