Nonfiction | Workshop

Summoning Ghosts: Biography & Historical Nonfiction

*Applications for this class will close on Jan 9.  Accepted students will be notified shortly after. 

This is a class about writing about dead people — about summoning the ghosts that won't leave us alone. This class will help you explore the genres of biography and archival history writing, weaving together deep research with a modern approach to writing diverse and interdisciplinary prose. Biography is an ever-evolving genre (it's not just for dads!) and in this class we will read and discuss writers who are innovating the form and writing dead people in surprising, poignant, radical, and vital ways. Guest speakers will include historians, archive managers, biographers, essayists, and editors who are looking for new voices to engage with old themes. Each member of class will research, write, and workshop a complete biographical essay, including creating a cross-platform plan to move the essay into a real-world project, be it a magazine piece, book, film treatment, podcast, or another format.

To apply for class, please submit narrative nonfiction. You need not be published to apply, but priority will be given to applicants who can demonstrate experience with and enthusiasm for longform nonfiction. Poets, novelists, and writers from other genres are encouraged to apply (sometimes novelists make the best biographers!).

In the application field where you are asked about previous workshop experience, please provide a short description (200-300 words) about yourself and what you hope to achieve in this workshop. What ghosts are you summoning? Why is the past so alluring to you? What makes you want to write about it?

Rachel Syme

writer/editor/adventuress. words in NYer/NYT/Elle/GQ + more. making things @matterstudios. coming: nonfic book @ random house. say hi: https://t.co/JfoIRCZQ8L

Testimonials

"Rachel was a dream to learn from! What a force of nature. Her energy and verve were so inspiring, not to mention her dedication to helping us learn and grow as writers."

former student