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Personal Essay Clinic: Advanced

Getting your completed essay polished -- and published

Course is closed.
Personal Essay Clinic: Advanced

WHEN 4 hours, Monday, May 19, 6:30-10:30 pm

WHERE New York (Downtown)

LEVEL Advanced

PRICE
$125 ($100 for )
more info

Course Details

This advanced class is designed for students who have a personal essay in the final stages of revision. This class is open to students who are passionate about the form of memoir, are comfortable with it, and are ready to polish and take their pieces to the next level and be published nationally. Essays must be submitted in advance, and admission will be based on those essays.

In this small class -- limited to 10 students -- you'll bring in a piece to be read and commented on by the class, critiqued by the instructor, and edited as heavily as the piece requires. The instructor will also recommend venues for which the work is suitable. Your pitch letter for the class will be workshopped as well. Through others' examples, you'll learn how to turn the red pen on your own work and learn to edit yourself with a sharp editorial eye.

In this workshop, Paula Derrow, Articles Director at Self (who assigns personal essays for the magazine), will edit and critique personal essays.

Admission Requirements:
Please submit a brief letter of interest that (including a work history) as well as the essay you would like to workshop.

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Instructor Bio

Paula Derrow's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Paula Derrow
Paula Derrow is the articles director of Self magazine, where she edits the "Self Expression" column as well as investigative, general-interest, and psychology features. (One of these features, "I gave up my breasts to save my life," by Lauren Slater, was nominated for a 2003 National Magazine Award award in the Best Essay category.) She has more than 20 years of editing and writing experience at a variety of women's and general-interest magazines and Web sites, including Glamour, American Health, Harper's Bazaar, The New Yorker, and Lifetime Television for Women (lifetimetv.com). Her first book, an anthology of essays by women about sex in real life, Behind the Bedroom Door, will be published by Bantam in 2008.

Testimonials


Paula's course resulted in my being published in The New York Times' Modern Love column. Paula's suggestions inevitably take a personal essay from 'a good idea' to publishable. -- Liza Monroy, freelancer, novelist, mb instructor

"Paula Derrow gets to the heart of the personal essay. She inspired me to finish essays I had been toying with in my mind for a long time, and I have submitted my first essay for publication. -- Glenn Michael Gordon, former editor, Reader's Digest online

"I took Paula's workshop and was immediately impressed with her deceptively laid-back style. Her feedback was incisive and powerfully focused on the heart of each person's story. I wrote a piece shortly after the class that ran in the June 2006 issue of Runner's World. Thanks, Paula!" -- Bill Braine, editor and freelancer

"Paula convinced me that what I was writing was not only publishable but also worth publishing. With her encouragement -- and unremittingly honest critique - I was able to hone pieces I've since placed in the NYTimes City Section, and the My Word (person essay page) of the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine. I can't commend Paula highly enough." -- Erica Rex

"I'd recommend this class to anyone interested in developing their own authentic essay writing voice in a supportive creative environment." -- Anna Marrian, freelancer

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