Creative Nonfiction: The Art of the Essay (Online Course)

(EGL 122 WB)

"I write to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what it means."

—Joan Didion

Creative nonfiction is often synonymous with memoir, but in this course you will turn your gaze outward, focusing upon things material (people, places, art, food, and literature) and intangible (ideas and emotions). Once you begin to investigate all that is around you, the possibilities will seem endless. This course will teach you the strategies of creative nonfiction. You (and your voice) will emerge through the subjects you tackle and the fresh perspective you bring to them.

This is also a course in experimentation. The essay, besides being able to find a home in many newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and blogs, lends itself to risk-taking.

Playful exercises will let you explore ways to generate ideas, begin projects, and approach material. We will also investigate the unconventional forms that the prose essay can take. Students should be prepared to write a brief essay (approximately 600–1,000 words) each week. Your hard work will be rewarded with plenty of constructive feedback, and you will generate a body of work that reflects your distinct point of view and engagement with the world.

Please note: This is an online course.
For more information on additional online courses, please visit http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/onlinewriting/.

Sara Michas-Martin, Former Stegner Fellow

Sara Michas-Martin has taught creative writing at Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Goddard College. She has received scholarships from the Hall Farm Center, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Bread Loaf and Squaw Valley Community of Writers conferences. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, FIELD, Forklift Ohio, Gulf Coast, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Threepenny Review, and elsewhere.