The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

Who am I? Not only is it a topic that philosophers and rock 'n' roll poets have wrestled with for millennia, it's also the primary concern of personal essayists, who must find a way to capture their truest self on the page. Am I funny? Am I a tearjerker, or a jerk on a tear? In this guided writing session, students will be led through a series of exercises that will help them discover their voice on the page while looking at a single personal essay topic of their choice from multiple perspectives. The goal is to complete several writing exercises that will help them find the best means of turning the stories of their lives into compelling, dynamic prose.

Hermit crab essays and stories adopt already existing forms as the container for the writing at hand. (The hermit crab is a creature born without its own shell to protect it so it must find an empty shell to inhabit.) By using a hermit crab form such as a “to-do” list, field guide, or set of yoga poses, one can craft a narrative where the form organizes or even dictates the content, and where these formal constraints help bypass our intellectual minds to make us more open and available to unexpected images, themes, and memories. In this class we will brainstorm a variety of forms in order to work with the tender underbelly of our own stories, and then we will use these “shells” to draft writing that aims for something new, exciting, and emotionally engaging-- for us and for the reader. You'll leave with a list of readings and additional exercises to further your study.d