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To Try: Five Weeks of Essays

  • Mechanics' Hall 519 Congress Street Portland, ME, 04101 United States (map)

A 5-Week Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Wednesdays: January 8 - February 5, 6-9 PM

One definition of the word essay is “a short piece of writing.” Another definition of essay is “to try.”  This five-week course focuses on trying as we generate essays that range in form, length, and structure. Each week we will read an essay together and then dive into a generative exercise to try to write in that mode. Our final week will be a workshop of one essay by each writer in the course. Readings may include Randon Billings Noble, Jeremy B. Jones, Kiese Laymon, Michael Paterniti, Jo Ann Beard; modes may include the lyric essay, flash nonfiction, braided essays, research-driven narratives. No writing is due before our first class, but students should be ready to share throughout the course. 

$275 Members/$475 Nonmembers


Meredith McCarroll is a writer and writing teacher living in Portland. Her work has appeared in SalonBitter SouthernerAvidlySouthern CulturesStillCutleafCleaver and elsewhere. McCarroll is the author of Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film (University of Georgia Press). Along with Anthony Harkins, McCarroll edited Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (West Virginia University Press) which won the Weatherford Award and the American Book Award. McCarroll is currently at work on a book project that explores lineage and inheritance, reckons with claims to place and culture, and explores what we literally pass down through blood but also what we inherit through proximity. For more, visit https://www.meredithmccarroll.com/.


ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.

PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION

QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact programs@mainewriters.org.

REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.

REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.

SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due by October 1 at 9:00 a.m.
→ MORE INFORMATION

MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION

Earlier Event: January 7
From Pitch to Printed Page