Online | Nonfiction | Workshop

8-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: How to Write a Heartbreak

At the end of a relationship—platonic, romantic, somewhere in between—there are your feelings about what happened and then there's the Truth of the matter. How do we come to the page honest, even when our heart might still be tender? How do we remain transparent about the events that transpired without going full tabloid? And how can we write something singular about our experience when so much has already been said about what it feels like to have loved and lost?

For each session of this workshop we will read and discuss 3-4 published pieces—a mix of short memoir, personal essay and craft essays—and dive into generative exercises that use the techniques we've gleaned from reading writers we admire. There will be an opportunity to share your work at the beginning and/or end of each session. The last two sessions will be reserved for workshopping; each student will submit to the workshop once for written and verbal feedback. We will read writing from Melissa Febos, Julia Koets, Michele Morano, Alden Jones, Akwaeke Emezi, Hanif Abdurraqib, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and others. This workshop is for writers with all levels of experience who are interested in writing about a past love.

Class meetings will be held over video chat, using Zoom accessed from your private class page. While you can use Zoom from your browser, we recommend downloading the desktop client so you have access to all platform features.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

- How to be transparent without being salacious

- How to be emotional without being sentimental or saccharine

- How to be unapologetic, but balanced in your Truth

- 10% discount on all future Catapult classes

COURSE EXPECTATIONS:

Students will be expected to read 3-4 published essays for each session and submit one workshop submission of 15 double-spaced pages or less.

COURSE SKELETON:

Week 1 - How to be True - Writing about a relationship in a way that is honest, balanced and unapologetic

Week 2 - Let’s Get Physical - Still keeping in mind the Febos craft essay, how do we address the body when writing about relationships?

Week 3 - Direct/Indirect - You can write a meaningful essay adjacent to your heartbreak or use culture writing to give your relationship writing structure

Week 4 - Murky - How can you write clearly about how you felt when how you felt was unclear?

Week 5 - It’s Me, Not You - When you're writing about a relationship, but your relationship to yourself is central to the essay

Week 6 - Workshop

Week 7 - Workshop

Week 8 - Workshop

Minda Honey

Minda Honey is a Louisville, KY-based writer. Her essays have been featured in “Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger” (Seal Press) and in the Hub City Press collection, “A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South,” and the forthcoming “Sex and the Single Girl: Reinventing Helen Gurley Brown’s Cult Classic” (Harper Perennial). She is at work on her debut essay collection, “An Anthology of Assholes,” about dating as a woman of color in Southern California due out by Little A summer 2023.

Testimonials

"Some writers scare the fuck out of you with their skill. Some writers have that will, that thang, that there is not one word. Minda Honey has both, and sick wit it, and a wide imagination and tub of experience building relationships with words."

Kiese Laymon author HEAVY, LONG DIVISION, and HOW TO SLOWLY KILL YOURSELF AND OTHERS IN AMERICA

“[Minda Honey’s] forthcoming memoir, AN ANTHOLOGY OF ASSHOLES, is going to be everywhere–trust. Vulnerable. Heartbreaking. Hysterical. Nuanced. Compulsively readable but never easy. What Minda does with words is magic. Know her!”

Edgar Gomez author of HIGH RISK HOMOSEXUAL, for “Poets & Writers”

“Minda is such a great teacher! The readings, discussions, and exercises were expertly crafted. Teaching and learning via Zoom isn’t easy, but Minda still created a warm and welcoming classroom feeling, even among a group of socially distanced Zoomers. This class was amazing and I hope The Porch will offer many many more classes with Minda!”

former student

“Minda is super relatable while providing great content. I feel empowered to speak my truth. I think it is also important that she clearly approaches the subject matter through a black femme lens and is unapologetic about it.”

former student

“Minda created an amazing space that brought me important perspectives and a slew of new writers to follow, all in the service of craft and communicating as human beings. I came away with real steps I can take to apply what we discussed to my own writing.”

former student

“Minda Honey is an incredible instructor and writer. She chooses beautiful and relevant essays to read, and expertly dissects them in useful ways. The writing prompts and revision tools are incredibly helpful, and one of my favorite aspects of the class. Minda is also so warm and welcoming that it hardly feels like we're on Zoom!”

former student