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Playing with Form in the Nonfiction Essay

  • USM Portland Campus and ONLINE Portland (map)

This workshop is full. To be added to the waitlist, please email Meghan at programs@gmail.com.

A HYBRID 5 Week Nonfiction Workshop

Wednesdays, May 17, 24, 31, June 14 & 21 6-9 PM

ALL LEVELS

In this class, we will read and write with attention to form, being intentional about ways that structure impacts understanding. We will read and write some of the following essay forms: Hermit crab essays (an essay that, like a hermit crab, slips into an existing form; i.e. recipe, set of instructions, or syllabus), braided essays (taking 2-4 threads woven together; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts), flash essays (distillation and brevity in fewer than 2000 words), fragmented essays (several smaller pieces that remain distinct; a “narrative mosaic”). Each week, we will read and discuss models, generate our own version of the structure of the week, and engage in workshop with special feedback on form.

 + PLEASE NOTE This workshop will be a hybrid class, occurring online via Zoom and in-person at USM. For those taking it online, students do not need to create an account to participate, but should test out Zoom before their class if they are first-time users. The week of the workshop, students will be emailed a link that they may click to enter the class. If you are interested in attending in-person, the week of the workshop you will receive the email to let you know the location on USM’s Portland campus.


Meredith McCarroll is Director of Writing and Rhetoric at Bowdoin College. Her work has appeared in Bitter Southerner, Avidly, Southern Cultures, Still, Cutleaf and elsewhere. McCarroll is the author of Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film (University of Georgia Press). Along with Anthony Harkins, McCarroll edited Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (West Virginia University Press) which won the Weatherford Award and the American Book Award. McCarroll is currently at work on a book project that explores lineage and inheritance, reckons with claims to place and culture, and explores what we literally pass down through blood but also what we inherit through proximity. A native North Carolinian, she lives in Portland, Maine.

 


ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.

PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION

QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact Meghan Sterling at programs@mainewriters.org.

REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-228-8263 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.


$245 Members / $450 Nonmembers


REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.

SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. The scholarship spot has been filled.
→ MORE INFORMATION

MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION