with Amanda Parrish Morgan
Four Mondays: 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17
11:30-1:30 am
Online
In her Creative Nonfiction essay “The Braided Essay as Social Justice,” Nicole Walker argues: “The braided essay isn’t a new form. In fact, I think nearly every essay uses a kind of braiding…perhaps,” she continues, “the braided form is most effective when the political and the personal are trying to explain and understand each other.” Among personal essays, braided essays are a form particularly welcoming to the vast array of ways—our obsessions, expertise, and contexts–that each of us uses to try to explain the personal. Often, the braided essay offers a way to approach questions and issues through a more universal or analytical lens than our experience alone can offer. How distinct do the threads in a braided essay need to be and how regular does the movement between strands need to remain in order to guide readers through the piece? In this class we’ll read a selection of braided essays and students will do some generative writing each week.