Preparing for this workshop

Thank you again for signing up for this generative creative nonfiction workshop. Before our time together, please take up to 15 minutes to read the following published work of creative nonfiction.

  1. ‘My Heartbreak Workbook’, excerpted from White Magic (2021) by Elissa Washuta

    Please note that this text contains content warnings for: body horror, sex, alcoholism, expletives, mention of bodily fluid.

    If you spot other content warnings worth flagging, please do let me know via email, and I will update this list.

Reading for a writing workshop is a little different from reading for a literature class. Don’t be too concerned about analyzing the ‘meaning’ of the text. Instead, note your emotional reactions as you wade through the works. Which lines or moments struck you emotionally? What about the text do you ‘vibe’ with? What don’t you ‘vibe’ with? During our time together, we will discuss how the authors use elements of writing, such as language and narrative, to create your reading experience.

A note about content warnings

Content notes exist to allow students with past traumas to prepare themselves emotionally and psychologically for material that may be re-traumatizing, and to access difficult content more safely. They are not meant to censor or criticize content or the author.

Please understand the difference between emotional trauma and intellectual discomfort: the former is harmful and unproductive, as is triggering it in the wrong context (in a classroom rather than in therapy, for example); the latter is fundamental to literary education — it means our ideas and grand narratives are being challenged as we struggle to resolve cognitive dissonance and biases, to discover alternative orientations and modalities of being.

(adapted from a syllabus note by Prof. Carissa Foo)

During the Workshop

For those who would like a softcopy of the slides presented, please view them here.

Optional Resources

In preparing for this workshop, I have also considered other works of heartbreak-related creative nonfiction that we could have discussed together. If you are inspired to read more, I would recommend perusing the following texts.

  1. ‘A Brief History of Sex’, excerpted from This Jade World (2021) by Ira Sukrungruang

    Please note that this text contains content warnings for: explicit depictions of sex and sexual acts, fatphobia, racism.

    If you spot other content warnings worth flagging, please do let me know via email, and I will update this list.

  2. ‘on CATASTROPHE’, excerpted from A Bestiary (2016) by Lily Hoang

    Please note that this text contains content warnings for: fatphobia, death of a loved one, drug use, hunting of animals, incarceration.

    If you spot other content warnings worth flagging, please do let me know via email, and I will update this list.

  3. ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by Jenny Boully

I have also provided below additional resources on the craft of creative nonfiction, which might prove useful for those starting out writing in this genre:

  1. What Is Creative Nonfiction? by Lee Gutkind — a great introduction to the definition and concerns for writers of the creative nonfiction genre

  2. The Introduction to Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: An Anthology written by editor Debra Monroe — a great primer to the history of the creative nonfiction genre

  3. Tell It Slant by Brenda Miller — a textbook that I keep going back to. It does an excellent job of teaching you creative nonfiction from the basics.

  4. ‘25 Essential Notes on Craft’ by Matthew Salesses — an article about fiction writing but it makes excellent points about literary craft in today’s context especially concerning writers of color