2021

ONLINE FEEDBACK CLINIC: Creative Nonfiction & Essays

Writers Victoria

21 July – 17 November, 2021

In this online course, participants will develop a body of short nonfiction prose works under the mentorship and supervision of the essayist and academic Ellena Savage. Through careful workshopping and feedback, students will identify the strengths and weaknesses of their short nonfiction prose. In addition to personal draft feedback, Savage will recommend texts for students to study that might provide useful models to learn from, and she will set optional writing exercises for students to engage with in their own time.

ONLINE WORKSHOP: Shaping an Essay Collection

Writers Victoria

31 October, 2021
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (AEST)

Essayists are notorious magpies. We collect facts, anecdotes, theories, speculations, fantasies, and desires, finding our materials everywhere from textbooks to train rides. Given the vast and diverse terrain essayists move through, often within a single short piece of writing, how can we to shape the ‘messy everything’ into a collection that in some way coheres?

While there are no concrete solutions—the essay spills out, it resists simple reductions, and this is why we practice it—in this workshop, students will study some tried and tested approaches to shaping an essay collection. Bring along your unfinished manuscripts, essays you think might be the beginning of a collection, or even your rough notes on what your future essay collection might be, and we will work these into a plan for you to develop and finish your essay collection.