3 Sessions: Tuesdays, July 28, August 4, August 11
6:00-8:00pm ET
Ryan Berg

Taught by Ryan Berg, an award-winning memoirist and experienced instructor of creative nonfiction, this course invites writers to engage the stories they have been avoiding and shape them with care and craft, drawing on Berg’s focus on the intersection of personal narrative and healing. Open to all levels, the class is best suited for writers ready to explore their own experiences on the page and participate in a thoughtful, craft-focused environment.

Some stories resist us for years. We circle them, intellectualize them, joke past them, or convince ourselves they are too personal, too fragmented, too unresolved to become art. Yet often the material we avoid contains the emotional center of our work.

In this generative workshop, writers will examine how personal narrative can hold difficult experience on the page without sliding into confession or retraumatization. Through close reading, discussion, and guided exercises, we will work with structure, scene, emotional distance, and voice. We will study writers who engage honestly with their hardest material while remaining attentive to craft, including Melissa Febos, Carmen Maria Machado, and Alexander Chee.

Students will receive:

• Generative writing prompts and in-class exercises

• A curated reading list and craft resources

• Practical strategies for approaching emotionally difficult material

• Optional written feedback on up to 10 pages of personal narrative

This class has 1 full and 2 partial scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, July 17.