Literary Journalism for Academic Writers

Are you a scholar who wants your writing to come alive, reach more people, or touch them in a deeper way? You don’t have to be a poet or novelist to achieve this—there are literary craft tools you can use to make your writing more memorable and rewarding. This workshop will borrow from tools employed by narrative nonfiction writers, particularly literary journalists, to help you produce more richly textured accounts of social life and human experience. How can you narrate an idea, a social reality, or an experience?

Together we will learn and apply strategies such as point of view, character development, scene construction, dialogue, and story structure. We will explore larger questions such as, what makes good writing good, and what makes it last? Is it possible to pursue social inquiry through storytelling? How can you reach general audiences and communicate beyond your field of specialty?

A maximum of twelve scholars from across disciplines will meet biweekly on Zoom over the course of two months, discussing readings and sharing writing exercises for feedback. Whether you want to write a personal narrative or simply incorporate stories in your scholarly writing, this workshop will get you going and change how you think about storytelling.

I won’t begin teaching this until Fall 2020 or Spring 2021, but you can contact me now to express interest and get on a wait list.