Writing the Braided Essay: 6 Session Workshop starting February 27
Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27
The braided essay is an ambitious form that seeks resonance between different ideas. A well-executed braid offers the pleasure of a solved riddle along with the lyricism of literature, but it is a complex beast. To braid an essay, a writer might deploy any of a long list of subgenres of nonfiction, including but not limited to memoir and personal narrative, immersion journalism, cultural criticism, science writing, academic and literary research. This course will explore the form and craft of three common components of the braided essay: memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism.
Writers will gain and deepen their familiarity with the braided essay, using personal narrative to inform and resonate with outward-looking work. We will explore content and craft and will spend time researching and generating braids of memoir, experiential research, and secondary research/cultural criticism. Writers will study the braided essay and each subgenre through creative and craft work by Ted Conover, Melissa Febos, Eula Biss, Kristin Dombek, Nicole Walker, and Hanif Abdurraqib while generating drafts of new material toward their own braided essay. The class will delve into the practices of memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism, as well as how to “do the braid”—that is, how to compose, edit, and organize material that can become unwieldy in draft form.
We will share practical techniques (like how to use index cards and your wall or floor to visually represent ideas and structures, and how to use the sonic rhythms of poetry to link disparate chunks of text), we will workshop rough pages, and we will serve as sounding boards for each other’s new work. The generative component of this class will be roughly split between mutual writing during class time and prompts to be responded to between classes.
The course is open to nonfiction writers (or aspiring nonfiction writers) of all experience levels. Some familiarity with the braided essay form is recommended.
Writers will leave the class with a rough/sketched draft of a braided essay and revision suggestions to guide them toward its completion.
This is a 6 week course. We will meet on Zoom, Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27
Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27
The braided essay is an ambitious form that seeks resonance between different ideas. A well-executed braid offers the pleasure of a solved riddle along with the lyricism of literature, but it is a complex beast. To braid an essay, a writer might deploy any of a long list of subgenres of nonfiction, including but not limited to memoir and personal narrative, immersion journalism, cultural criticism, science writing, academic and literary research. This course will explore the form and craft of three common components of the braided essay: memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism.
Writers will gain and deepen their familiarity with the braided essay, using personal narrative to inform and resonate with outward-looking work. We will explore content and craft and will spend time researching and generating braids of memoir, experiential research, and secondary research/cultural criticism. Writers will study the braided essay and each subgenre through creative and craft work by Ted Conover, Melissa Febos, Eula Biss, Kristin Dombek, Nicole Walker, and Hanif Abdurraqib while generating drafts of new material toward their own braided essay. The class will delve into the practices of memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism, as well as how to “do the braid”—that is, how to compose, edit, and organize material that can become unwieldy in draft form.
We will share practical techniques (like how to use index cards and your wall or floor to visually represent ideas and structures, and how to use the sonic rhythms of poetry to link disparate chunks of text), we will workshop rough pages, and we will serve as sounding boards for each other’s new work. The generative component of this class will be roughly split between mutual writing during class time and prompts to be responded to between classes.
The course is open to nonfiction writers (or aspiring nonfiction writers) of all experience levels. Some familiarity with the braided essay form is recommended.
Writers will leave the class with a rough/sketched draft of a braided essay and revision suggestions to guide them toward its completion.
This is a 6 week course. We will meet on Zoom, Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27
Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27
The braided essay is an ambitious form that seeks resonance between different ideas. A well-executed braid offers the pleasure of a solved riddle along with the lyricism of literature, but it is a complex beast. To braid an essay, a writer might deploy any of a long list of subgenres of nonfiction, including but not limited to memoir and personal narrative, immersion journalism, cultural criticism, science writing, academic and literary research. This course will explore the form and craft of three common components of the braided essay: memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism.
Writers will gain and deepen their familiarity with the braided essay, using personal narrative to inform and resonate with outward-looking work. We will explore content and craft and will spend time researching and generating braids of memoir, experiential research, and secondary research/cultural criticism. Writers will study the braided essay and each subgenre through creative and craft work by Ted Conover, Melissa Febos, Eula Biss, Kristin Dombek, Nicole Walker, and Hanif Abdurraqib while generating drafts of new material toward their own braided essay. The class will delve into the practices of memoir, immersion research, and cultural criticism, as well as how to “do the braid”—that is, how to compose, edit, and organize material that can become unwieldy in draft form.
We will share practical techniques (like how to use index cards and your wall or floor to visually represent ideas and structures, and how to use the sonic rhythms of poetry to link disparate chunks of text), we will workshop rough pages, and we will serve as sounding boards for each other’s new work. The generative component of this class will be roughly split between mutual writing during class time and prompts to be responded to between classes.
The course is open to nonfiction writers (or aspiring nonfiction writers) of all experience levels. Some familiarity with the braided essay form is recommended.
Writers will leave the class with a rough/sketched draft of a braided essay and revision suggestions to guide them toward its completion.
This is a 6 week course. We will meet on Zoom, Thursdays, 6-8pm Pacific Time, starting February 27