Writing the Personal Essay (with Áine Greaney) - ONLINE
This workshop will introduce you to the genre of the shorter and longer personal essay and how and where you can write and publish first-person essays that tell a story and make a point about the world and our shared humanity. The class will cover topics such as finding ideas, penning your first draft, creating lively and memorable scenes, introducing background research, editing for clarity and submitting your essay for publication. For beginners, advanced beginners, or anyone wanting to refresh their understanding of the personal essay form.
Pre-Class Reading: You will be sent a link to a very short personal essay to read before the class. This shared reading experience will give us a context and a set of reference points for our workshop and conversations about personal essay writing.
WHEN: Saturday, January 15 (1 - 3pm EST)
WHERE: Online, via Zoom video conference
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
ÁINE GREANEY is an Irish born author now living in eastern Massachusetts. In addition to her five published books, she has published personal and opinion essays in publications such as Creative Nonfiction, The Boston Globe Magazine, New York Times Tiny Love Story, Another Chicago Magazine, WBUR/Cognoscenti and an essay collection, Green Card & Other Essays. She has also been a featured storyteller in "Stories from the Stage" at PBS The World Channel. Her work has been cited in Best American Essays, and she has led writing workshops in New England, New York and Ireland and has presented on writing at two national conferences. She holds an MA in English. Find her online at ainegreaney.com
RECEIVING THE ZOOM LINK: For one-day workshops, we send out the link to attend the Zoom session 1 - 2 days before the event, via email. For multi-week workshops, you should receive info and the link about a week before the first meeting. Please mark your calendars and look for our emails. If you don't see the email in your inbox on the day before the event (or a few days before, in the case of multi-week workshops), please check your spam and junk mail folders (and search all folders) for an email from joy@pioneervalleywriters.org. We have found that very often our emails end up in those folders. This is based on your own email settings, and you can prevent this by adding our email as a contact.
ONLINE SESSIONS happen remotely, via Zoom video conference. All you need is a laptop, computer, or phone with functioning audio and a webcam. Those who RSVP receive directions and a link to "join" the session via email (please see above note about receiving the Zoom link). All online instructors will log on to the video conference 10 minutes before the start of the session, to help anyone with technical issues, so please plan to log on early if you'd like assistance! We'll do everything in our power to help you get comfortable with this new format, though when the session begins, we will not be able to assist with technical difficulties.
REFUND & CREDIT POLICIES AT PVWW
If you withdraw from a workshop ten days or more before the start of the class: You'll receive full credit toward another workshop OR a full refund. If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive a refund minus 20%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We are not able to offer you credit toward another class or any refund, unless in the case of a medical emergency, or if we are able to fill your spot. If you are absent on the day of your workshop or miss it for any reason, we are unable to offer any kind of refund. If we have to cancel a class for any reason, you will receive a full refund, or if you choose, credit in the amount of your payment, to be used for any future PVWW class. Anyone who does not specify whether they would like a refund or a credit for a cancelled class will automatically be refunded. Please contact Joy (joy@pioneervalleywriters.org) for all matters concerning credit and refunds.