In this generative, one-day intensive, we'll move step by step through building the draft of a short essay. The workshop will be writing-focused, so participants should come prepared to dive deeply into their own material. We'll move from idea generation through early drafting, with specific prompts along the way to help with structure, image, point of view, theme, and form, with the end goal of leaving the workshop with a short draft. Writers need not come in with ideas already in mind, though ideas are welcome. This workshop is appropriate for any experience level, and any stage of a project-in-process. 

Though we'll primarily focus on personal nonfiction, narrative nonfiction writers, memoirists, short story writers, and others are also welcome.

TESSA FONTAINE is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, A New York Times Editors' Choice; A Southern Living Best Book of 2018; An Amazon Editors' Best Book of 2018; A Refinery29 Best Book of 2018; A New York Post Most Unforgettable Book of 2018. Tessa spent the 2013 season performing with the last American traveling circus sideshow, the World of Wonders. An essay about the sideshow won the 2016 AWP Intro Award in Nonfiction. Her writing can be found in Outside online, The New York Times, Glamour, The Believer, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, The Normal School, Seneca Review, DIAGRAM, New Orleans Review, and more. She recently won a Tin House residency to work on her next book, a novel, which will be published by FSG in 2023.