Part of what draws a reader into a nonfiction work is knowing that flesh-and-blood people exist behind the words. However, real-life characters don’t automatically spring to life on the page. How do memoirists, personal essayists, literary journalists, and other nonfiction writers work with factual material to create fully developed, three-dimensional characters? In this class, we will look closely at several literary models, complete in-class writing prompts, and discuss ways to incorporate character-building elements into our own nonfiction works.

Rebecca McClanahan’s eleventh book, In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays, appeared from Red Hen Press in fall 2020. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, Brevity, The Sun, River Teeth, and in anthologies published by Simon & Schuster, Beacon, Norton, and Bedford/St. Martin, among others. Recipient of two Pushcart prizes, the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction, the Wood Prize from Poetry Magazine, (twice) the Carter Prize for the Essay, and the N.C. Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education, she teaches in the MFA programs of Rainier Writing Workshop and Queens University. She can be reached at www.RebeccaMcClanahanWriter.com.