24PearlStreet Workshops and Events

What does it mean to write memoir and creative nonfiction in 2020? How to write out of our personal urgency while also asking questions about community, survival, isolation, and power—all that is wrong with the world and all we’d like to make better? How does it feel to be alive right now? We’ll think about those questions alongside all the matters of craft: voice, structure, focus, sonics, description, polarity, openings, closings. We’ll do this through the lens of your own manuscript (up to eight double-spaced pages) while also looking at a few short examples of outside work. There will be time for exercises. Along the way we’ll work hard and make sure that play and seriousness share the same space.
LIVE ELEMENT: Each student will have a one-on-one videoconference with the instructor to conclude the class.
Biography
Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, and The Narrow Door. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Conjunctions, Fence, The New York Times, The Offing, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Rose Dorothea Award from the Provincetown Library. He is currently a Professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Louisiana.