Intermediate Personal Essay Writing - May 2023

If you have some experience writing personal essays and are interested in learning new, more advanced techniques and getting feedback, this might be the class for you. Together, we'll look at examples of personal essays that were successful and explore some of the more nuanced aspects of memoir writing, including recreating scenes and dialogue, questioning the self, and the pluses and minuses of getting feedback from your subjects. We will also practice writing and sharing our work in class. Participants will give and receive feedback and will work towards completing a draft of a personal essay.

Instructor: Lee Chilcote is an award-winning journalist, writer and author whose writing is published in Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt and many literary journals as well as in The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook, The Cleveland Anthology and A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City. His poetry chapbooks are The Shape of Home and How to Live in Ruins. He is founder and former editor of The Land, a local news startup reporting on Cleveland's neighborhoods, and a founder and past executive director of Literary Cleveland. He lives in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood of Cleveland with his family.

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Details: Intermediate Personal Essay Writing - May 2023 takes place Thursdays May 4, May 11, May 18, May 25, and June 1 from 6:30-8:30pm in person at Lakewood United Methodist Church, 15700 Detroit Ave, Lakewood OH 44107.

Prerequisites: None

Genre: Nonfiction/memoir

Level: Intermediate

Format: Craft and feedback workshop with writing outside of sessions

Location: This class takes place in person at Lakewood United Methodist Church, 15700 Detroit Ave, Lakewood OH 44107.

Size: Limited to 12 participants (including scholarships).

Suggested Sequence: Follow this class with an intermediate level memoir, nonfiction, or essay writing course.

Scholarships: Two scholarship spots are available for this class for writers in Northeast Ohio. Apply by April 24.

Cancellations & Refunds: Cancel at least 48 hours in advance of the first class meeting to receive a full refund. Email info@litcleveland.org.

Registration Fee

$150 - Non-Member Registration

$100 - Registration with Member Discount

I'd also like to help out other writers with a donation to the Word for Word Scholarship Fund. (This fund provides low- and limited-income writers in NE Ohio with access to our classes)

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