W36 In Brief: Explorations in Short Nonfiction
Thursday, February 13
10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

$110.00

WRITING WORKSHOP | Joanne B. Mulcahy | Memoir & Personal Essay | Handout available (log in using MY ACCOUNT on the menu)

Only 2 left in stock

Description

Charles Simic calls them “memory fragments,” while other writers describe “micro essays,” “flash nonfiction,” or simply “shorts.” Brief nonfiction is, like flash fiction and poetry, complete in itself, or it may be a prologue or other part of a larger structure.

In this workshop, we’ll read samples from “Short Takes: Brief Encounters With Contemporary Nonfiction” and other anthologies and from the online journal, Brevity. We’ll look at strategies such as varying voice and point of view to create writing that captures entire worlds in concise form. Discussion will also focus on how brief nonfiction differs from longer forms as well as from poetry. Shorts and poems both rely on detail, dense imagery, and what Brevity’s editor Dinty W. Moore calls the heat necessary to compel readers. The heat might arise from surprise or revelation, as well as vivid images or inventive use of language.

We’ll write from prompts to generate our own brief essays, memoirs, portraits, or travelogues. Using a handout of guidelines, we’ll respond to one another’s initial drafts and discuss ways to condense and revise at home. All writers are welcome, whether in the middle of a work in progress or simply wanting to explore writing “in miniature.”


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