Ready to get your life stories out of your journal and into the world? If you want to learn the art of writing personal essays, but have no idea where to begin (or you need a refresher), this course is for you. Over six weeks, you will learn the essentials of the personal essay, and put them into practice by writing your own essays.

Each week, we will discuss an element of craft, including scene and summary, reflection, narrator and character, and revision, and study published examples from authors like James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, Joan Didion, Jenny Boully, Michael Pollan, Alexander Chee, and more. To put what we learn into practice, we’ll use prompts and different essay forms to inspire our own drafts. During the second half of the class, you’ll have the chance to workshop and revise at least one of these essays with the entire class.

By the end of the course, you will have generated three essay drafts, as well as one revised draft, and the insight and inspiration to continue developing your essays.