I hope you’ve all had refreshing summers, despite the brutal heat waves in many areas, including where I am in the mid-Atlantic region. But fall is here and it can be a wonderful time of year to re-set your writing intentions and schedules. I am happy to be offering a couple of classes through the Princeton Adult School, which can be found here.
Micro-Memoir: Making Sense of Your Life in a Flash will run for 4 weeks on Tuesday evenings, Oct. 8-29, from 6:30-8:30 pm. I have offered this class for the past couple of years, and every semester I switch up the form of the feedback and bring in new reading material. A few people have taken the class more than once, and this has given us all the opportunity to keep things fresh! Here is the class description:
“Making sense of the past can be empowering and transformative for a writer. Doing it within strict word limits can be sublime for the reader. People crave these literary moments of profound understanding and connection that break through the background noise of tweets and sound-bites. Students will read and discuss examples of the genre, generate new work, receive supportive feedback, and come away with a list of publications that accept flash nonfiction. “
New this term is Personal Essaying: Thoughts Unfurling on an Open Road (Detours Likely!). This class will run for 6 sessions on Tuesday evenings, Nov. 12–Dec.17, from 6:30-8:30 pm. I can’t wait to get back to longer-form essaying! From the catalog:
“In his introduction to The Art of The Personal Essay, Phillip Lopate writes, “The personal essay has an open form and a drive toward candor and self-disclosure. Unlike the formal essay, it depends less on airtight reasoning than on style and personality…” This course is for intermediate/advanced personal essayists, ready to take their style, personality, thinking, observations, and memories for a road trip on the page. Students will learn more about the twists, turns, and detours that essays can take through close readings of selected works, and then receive group feedback on one personal essay up to 3,000 words.”
If you can make it in person, there are still a few seats left in both classes! Wishing you all the best of the season — new writing projects, cool night air, and long walks among the falling leaves.