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From Joan Didion and James Baldwin, through Nancy Mairs and Richard Rodriquez, on up to contemporary writers such as Eula Biss, Leslie Jamison, Ross Gay, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Geoff Dyer, the personal essayist has always found a way to get at important current events and social issues their personal stories. In this 3-hour workshop, we will examine works by the above writers and complete a set of exercises to open up “points of entry” for our own personal essays.

SEBASTIAN MATTHEWS is the author of the memoir In My Father’s Footsteps and three books of poems, Beginner’s Guide to a Head-on Collision, We Generous, and Miracle Day. Beginner’s Guide won the Independent Publisher Book Award's silver medal. Matthews also co-edited, along with Stanley Plumly, Search Party: The Collected Poems of William Matthews (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize). He currently serves on the board at Vermont Studio Center and on the advisory board for Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters. His most recent books are, Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State and The Life & Times of American Crow.