The Art of the Essay Workshop with Cinelle Barnes

Places have pulse and memory. Places breathe and shift. More than just a site or setting, a place often takes the shape of a character: taking significant, often shifting, space in our knowledge of self. Whether writing about a house, a street, a city, a region, or a country, a sense of place is central to constructing (and deconstructing) a sense of identity in personal narrative.

This six-week course is intended for nonfiction writers of all levels seeking to begin or complete essays or memoirs that explore their relationship with a physical environment. Studying Joan Didion's California, Alexander Chee's New York, and essays from A Measure of Belonging: 21 Writers of Color on the New American South (Kiese Laymon's Mississippi, Joy Priest's Kentucky, Latria Graham's South Carolina, Natalia Sylvester's map of borders and bodies, Diana Cejas' tobacco farm, Toni Jensen's classroom, and the instructor's now-notorious home), we will draw from various forms, techniques, angles, and approaches to writing about place. Each week, we will look at select passages from two to three writers, take prompts from their oeuvre to generate new work or revise projects in progress, and learn to look at place as an extension of our persons.

Classes will be held over video chat, using Zoom.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

The Art of the Essay is a safe space for writers of color, at all levels. We will meet every week for six weeks on Wednesday evenings, 6:30PM-8:30PM via ZOOM.

Students will read two to three excerpts or essays before every weekly session. At each Zoom session, the instructor will break down forms, techniques, angles, and approaches to place, and will field questions from the group. After each session, writing prompts will be assigned.

Click here for weekly Class Notes & Reading Assignments.


CLASS DETAILS

Class Dates: February 17, February 24, March 3, March 10, March 17, March 24

The enrollment is limited to 15 BIPOC participants.

Workshop Fee: $325

REGISTER TODAY. SECURE YOUR SEAT.

Register for the workshop with an email to workshops@kwelijournal.org. 

Payment in advance secures your seat. 

You can make your payment via check or money order. Please mail your payment to the following address. 

Kweli Journal
PO Box 693
New York, NY  10021
ATTN: Workshop

You can also make a payment online with PayPal. 

For more information, please email workshops@kwelijournal.org.