502 Experiments in Nonfiction: Lyric Essay, Hybridity, Ephemera (ENGLISH)

What if your memoir were to adopt an unconventional shape or form? What would that form be? How would your story best be manifested on the page? What if you were to write a personal essay without formal constraints? How would your thoughts best reveal themselves, best unfold? If you were to allow your travel writing to be informed by another subgenre, what would that be? By embracing hybrid forms, say the comingling of prose and poetry, or nonfiction and fiction, the integration of lists, photographs, ephemera, we have the opportunity to reimagine the nonfiction form in exciting, liberating ways. In this interactive seminar/workshop we will explore models that push conventions in nonfiction to discover forms that revel in play and experimentation, as well as authentic, unfettered expression. We will then apply these principles to our own writing, working through writing exercises that liberate and excite our practice, challenge and subvert expectations of the nonfiction form. We will work with forms that include the lyric essay, the braided essay, and the hermit crab essay, as well as interdisciplinary travel and memoir writing. Attendees are welcome to bring a short work in progress, but will also have the opportunity to work on new material through a series of guided prompts. Come away from workshop with a newly conceptualized piece of experimental nonfiction writing.

Instructor

Catherine Black