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