MEM 23 W — Taking Inspiration from the Masters: Personal Essay Workshop
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Rachel Howard
Date(s): Sep 24—Dec 3
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class the week of November 23
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Fall
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Sep 24—Dec 3
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
Instructor(s): Rachel Howard
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Please Note: No class the week of November 23
The personal essay allows us to take small moments and use them as a portal into deep questions of human experience. In this course, we will approach the personal essay the way painters approach their discipline: first analyzing, then “copying” our forebears. To accomplish this, we'll devote one week to closely reading short essays by such diverse writers as Grace Paley, Ann Daum, Dinty Moore, Terese Marie Mailhot, and James Baldwin. The following week, you'll draft one “imitation”—an original work that borrows a published writer’s structure or style—for feedback from classmates and the instructor. By week six, you will have written three “imitation” essays. For the final month, you'll tap your own personal mix of influences to produce an essay to be workshopped by the entire class. Along the way, you'll learn to mine your richest material, make the most of thought-provoking images, and craft resonant endings. By imitating the masters, you will, paradoxically, find your unique voice.
RACHEL HOWARD
Author
Rachel Howard is the author of a memoir about her father’s unsolved murder, The Lost Night, and a novel, The Risk of Us. Her personal essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times "Draft" series, The Los Angeles Review of Books, StoryQuarterly, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She is the recipient of a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and is working on a new memoir. Howard received an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. Textbooks for this course:
(Optional) Judith Kitchen(Ed.), Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction (ISBN 978-0393326000)