Workshops

“Essay in a Day” with Tessa Fontaine

May 18, 1:00-4:00PM
Online via Zoom

In this generative, one-day intensive, we’ll move step by step through building the draft of a short essay—from idea generation through early drafting, with prompts along the way to help with structure, image, point of view, theme, and form. The end goal is that each participant leave the workshop with a short first draft.

Writers need not come in with ideas for their essay already in mind, though ideas are welcome. The workshop will be writing-focused, so participants should come prepared to dive deeply into their own material.

This workshop is appropriate for any experience level, and any stage of a project-in-process. Though we’ll primarily focus on the personal essay, narrative nonfiction writers, memoirists, short story writers, and others are also welcome.

About the Instructor

Tessa Fontaine is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and “best book of the year” by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors, and The New York Post. The Red Grove, her debut novel, was named a “best book” by Amazon Editors and People Magazine, and is currently longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her writing can be found in Outside, The New York Times, Glamour, AGNI, The Believer, People, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, and more.