Creative Nonfiction: Telling the Truth and Where to Begin

(EGL 166 W)

Y ou were there, you saw it happen — but how do you tell the story? What should you include? If you are interested in travel writing, memoir, or personal essays of any kind, this course will give you tools for writing vividly about the world around you — in the tradition of Joan Didion, W.G. Sebald, and Joseph Mitchell — and it will teach you ways of discovering your subject matter through the act of writing. In this course, we will cover mechanical issues such as pacing, structure, and the strategic use of detail, and we will also explore ways of writing compelling dialogue that rings true. We will also talk about revision, how to make time for your writing, and how to find an audience.

Whether you write short essays or are working on a book, you can expect serious, nuanced feedback from both the instructor and a newly accessible online community of artists.

For more information about The Online Writer's Studio, please visit our FAQs.

James Arthur, Former Stegner Fellow

James Arthur’s essays and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Ploughshares, and The Southern Review. He has received a “Discovery”/ The Nation Prize, the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, and fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.