Master Class: Revising Yourself with Sandy Ernest Allen
Master Class: Revising Yourself with Sandy Ernest Allen
2 Sessions: Saturdays, March 7 + 14
1:00-3:00pm ET
Sandy Ernest Allen
Become a better self-editor by taking this two-part Craft Seminar taught by author, essayist and journalist Sandy Ernest Allen. Sandy’s journalism and other writing focuses on mental health and/or gender. He’s especially concerned with whose perspectives matter and warrant inclusion as we craft “nonfiction” itself. Stylistically his work ranges from the deeply reported to the highly personal — to those pieces which blend both modes in whichever ways.
This is a craft-focused seminar focused on the revision of personal essays. When writing about our own lives, how can we forge the critical distance necessary for revision itself? In general, how can we become better self-editors? This course will be geared towards serious writers of literary nonfiction who already have a strong draft of a personal essay (or standalone memoir excerpt) they wish to revise. Consider this an opportunity to push your best unpublished personal essay draft or memoir excerpt to the next level. During the first class, the instructor will guide students through a variety of strategies for revision, ones they’ll then try out during the interim.
Students will be asked to submit their initial drafts ahead of the first class and the revised drafts ahead of the second, primarily for instructor perusal. (Maximum 15 pages. If a memoir excerpt, material should work on its own without further explanation.) Students will also be asked to share a reflection with the instructor, discussing how the revision process went for them. Though this won’t be a formal workshop, participants may be asked if they’d be willing to have portions of their two drafts shared with the group for discussion. Ample time will be provided for student questions, both about revision, as well as topics like pitching, editorial processes, fact checks, and the various challenges one can face when writing about real people and events.
Workshop Highlights:
Students will come away with a variety of approaches for the revision of personal essay/memoir, including work they already feel is strong.
They'll get to try out and play with various mechanical drills in service of revision, as well as strategies for forging distance between the self who wrote the draft and the one who is revising.
They will learn how to navigate some of the real-world hurdles one might face when attempting to publish personal essays/memoir.
Sandy Ernest Allen (he/they) is a journalist and author whose work focuses on gender and mental health. Sandy's pieces have been published by a wide range of outlets, including The Boston Globe, Eater, Cosmopolitan, The Believer, Esquire, The Cut, 99% Invisible and This American Life, and many more. His debut book, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise (Scribner) was long-listed as a top work of journalism of the decade by NYU’s journalism school amongst other accolades. Sandy's work has been praised by The New York Times, O Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and The New Republic ("A watershed in empathetic adaptation of 'outsider' autobiography."). Sandy has two degrees in creative nonfiction (from Brown, and an MFA from the University of Iowa) and he was formerly the Deputy Features Editor of BuzzFeed News. He has taught nonfiction writing and literature to a variety of people, from teenagers to retirees (at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth, Iowa, and in person and online for Catapult).