The New School
Writing Real People: Intersectionality in Nonfiction
Spring 2020 Jan 21-May 11
Honors Nonfiction Workshop
Aug 26 – Dec 16, 2019
In this workshop, students sharpen their skills as storytellers, drawing from their own experience and linking their narratives to larger, timely themes — bringing together the personal and political. Students keep a journal, each week concentrating on a different aspect of craft. Student works are carefully critiqued each week. Assigned readings explore race, class, post-colonialism, and war, among other subjects, and include short essays, memoir, reportage, and travel writing by Katherine Boo, Haruki Murakami, Liao Yiwu, Svetlana Alexievich, George Packer, Jonathan Raban, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Emmanuel Carrere, Geoff Dyer, Claudia Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Tim O’Brien. Readings will include excerpts from longer works as well as journal and magazine articles.
Micro-Essays
Nov 2 & 9, 2019
This intensive workshop focuses on short nonfiction, as both finished work and scaffolding for compression, lyricism, and experimentation in longer prose narratives. The course explores a variety of short (500-750-word) nonfiction forms, including memoir/personal essay, argument, social commentary, meditation, reflection, criticism, and cross-genre hybrids in both print and online publications. Participants write, critique, and revise eight original works during two consecutive Saturday workshops. This two-Saturday course is also open to continuing ed students through Open Campus at the New School. Follow this link