This 8-week creative non-fiction class is designed for writers with some experience in writing personal essays who would like to push their work further, honing the craft, elevating the language, and playing with prose and structure. The first four weeks we’ll focus on more traditional forms and study important essay elements: voice and tone, point of view, narrative arc, character arc and development, etc., while the second half of the class we’ll explore a few unconventional forms: hermit crab essays, braided essays, prose poems and lyric essays. We’ll discuss work by Margaret Atwood, CJ Hauser, Sarah Gerard, Maggie Nelson, Andrea Gibson, Daniel Elder, and Lidia Yuknavitch, among others, deconstructing the readings as well as our own essays—and reconstructing our thinking about the genre.
In this generative course, prompt-based essays will be assigned each week, and a large portion of our time together will be dedicated to workshopping, so students will have the opportunity to receive feedback from peers while strengthening their own editing skills. You will not only come away with several new pieces as well as direction for revision, but our objective is to gain a deeper understanding and a more expansive view of the power and unlimited possibilities of the personal essay.
Christie Grotheim’s debut novel, The Year Marjorie Moore Learned to Live, was published in 2019 by Heliotrope Books and was a finalist for best new novel from the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Her stories have been featured in SWING, The Harpy Hybrid Review, Salon.com, The New York Observer, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Petrolicious.com, and The Dodge, among others. In 2020, Grotheim and her husband relocated from Manhattan to Ashland City, where after a couple of long years of renovations and manual labor, she’s finally realizing her dream of hosting writers’ retreats on the property (Blue Spring Creek Retreats @bluepsringcreekretreats), in collaboration with The Porch, where she’s also a creative writing instructor.
"Christie Grotheim provides incredibly helpful feedback and constructive ideas for students of all levels during class discussions. She is a thoughtful reader who provides great materials on elements of craft. I look forward to taking classes with her again!"
“Christie Grotheim’s experience as an author creates an atmosphere that is open and constructive, and, as a reader, she provides thoughtful critiques that help you reassess your own work with a fresh perspective. She is approachable and enthusiastic. But, equally important, she’s a fun hang!”
"Christie's class was the perfect mix of instruction, practice, and discussion."
