24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
ASYNCHRONOUS
In this course, we will engage in creative nonfiction with an eye to its shapeshifting possibilities. We will read a lyric essay, a braided historic essay, a traditional essay, a hermit crab essay, and a couple of straight-up memoirs. All this, in addition to writing our own prose! By examining the possibility of styles that the CNF genre presents, we will empower ourselves as readers and writers. Students who take this course will also engage in a couple of craft essays and four writing assignments. Each week will present a new opportunity to submit work and receive feedback from your instructor. The only requirement is to come ready to engage in new forms. Together we will broaden our perspective on “true stories well told.”
Biography
Deborah Jackson Taffa’s debut, Whiskey Tender, a 2024 National Book Award Finalist, has been named on best lists at Esquire, Oprah Daily, ELLE, and The Washington Post. She has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, MacDowell, the Ellen Meloy Foundation, Tin House, the University of Iowa, and the NY Summer Writers Institute. Taffa received her MFA in Iowa City. A citizen of the Kwatsaan Nation and Laguna Pueblo, she is the director of the MFA CW program at the IAIA in Santa Fe, NM.
