Fall in Love with the Lyric Essay

Do you have images, memories, turn of phrase you’re not sure what to do with? Perhaps you’d like to share them, craft them into something – but you don’t know exactly what. You’re not positive there’s enough material to write a whole story or poem or memoir, but the ideas, the images won’t leave you alone.

Come try this exciting, flexible, short form – the lyric essay. The lyric essay lives in the intersection of creative nonfiction and memoir. And it lets writers play in the pools of memoir, personal essay and poetry.

In this playful and supportive one-day workshop, you will learn the hallmarks of a lyric essay, explore examples of successful lyric essay and begin to write a few of your own. You’ll take the things that fascinate you, along with memories, experiences and images from your own life and begin to craft something fresh and new.

Lyric essays ask more questions than provide answers. They are exploratory and ruminative, in the true sense of the word essay – French for to try or to attempt. So they are a wonderful place to explore unwieldy or difficult topics.

Come try. Bring your curiosity and your obsessions. We’l’l explore the lyric essay together. And you’ll leave this workshop with lots of ideas, a few first drafts and a new genre tucked in your back pocket.