Genre: Creative Nonfiction

The Rabbit Hole

6.13.19

“My feckless Googling had reaped a monstrous reality that I knew was going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Douglas Preston writes in Wired about a nostalgia-induced online search for his childhood best friend that leads him into some unexpectedly dark territory. This week, think about a time when you inadvertently uncovered something (good or bad) you weren’t meant to know—perhaps you overheard a conversation about yourself or someone close to you, followed an Internet search that spiraled to an unintentional conclusion, or submitted an online DNA kit without considering the consequences. Write an essay about the discovery and the actions you took as a response. Did you confront this new truth or carry on as if you had never learned it?

Loose and Lyrical Truths

“Lyrical essays are more like jazz than a concerto. The idea that lyrical essays are more poetic than logical has allowed authors to play fast and loose with the truth,” writes GD Dess in his Los Angeles Review of Books review of Elisa Gabbert’s essay collection The Word Pretty (Black Ocean, 2018). Think of a current conflict or issue in your personal life that remains unresolved—perhaps you are uncertain where exactly the truth of the matter lies. Write a lyric essay that engages with the seemingly solid facts of the topic, but allow yourself the freedom to veer into stream of consciousness and follow a “more poetic” logic. 

University at Albany, SUNY

PhD Program
Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Cross-Genre
Albany, NY
Application Deadline: 
Wed, 01/15/2025
Application Fee: 
$75
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

University at Albany, SUNY

MA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Cross-Genre
Albany, NY
Application Deadline: 
Rolling Admissions
Application Fee: 
$75
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

Kansas State University

MA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
Manhattan, KS
Application Deadline: 
Thu, 08/01/2024
Application Fee: 
$65 ($75 for international applicants)
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

Binghamton University

PhD Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
Binghamton, NY
Application Deadline: 
Mon, 01/27/2025
Application Fee: 
$75
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

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