8-week Advanced Personal Essay & Memoir – begins 3.23.23 – Union Square – taught by Nancy Rawlinson

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a 3-5 page sample.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. In-class writing prompts will be used to inspire and motivate students to produce new work.

This workshop is open to writers working on memoir and personal essays, and writers must have both writing and workshopping experience.

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Nancy Rawlinson has been working as a freelance editor and writing coach since 2003, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Recent books that she has worked on include books published by Harper, Picador, Scribner, Atria, Simon and Schuster, Knopf, Houghton Mifflin, Liveright, Chicago Review Press, Crown, and more.

Nancy started her life as an editor and writer working for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, The Sun, Time Out London, and Madison magazine. She has an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. From 2006-2008 she was a nonfiction editor at Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics. As a writer she has been awarded residencies and fellowships from the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Jentel Artist Residency Program. She trained as a coach at the NLP Center of New York and lives in Brooklyn with her two sons.