Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Comfort and Escape

12.1.22

In “Finding Comfort and Escape in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” published on Literary Hub, A. Cerisse Cohen writes about the impact the iconic cookbook had on her relationship with cooking during the pandemic when she moved from New York City to Missoula, Montana. Cohen not only discovers that “bad food is often the result of impatience,” but also finds a transformational lesson behind the patient, careful labor behind Hazan’s dishes indicating to her the many ways through which people take care of one another. Write an essay about your relationship to cooking and the impact it has had on other aspects of your life. Are there lessons you’ve learned from preparing an ambitious dish?

George Saunders on His Writing Process

Caption: 

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders speaks about his latest story collection, Liberation Day (Random House, 2022), and the need to be in a “holy state of not knowing anything” when starting a new writing project. Liberation Day is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Out of the Weeds

11.24.22

In “Ten Ways of Being in the Weeds With Your Novel, and Ten Ways Out,” the latest installment of our Craft Capsule series, Blake Sanz writes the essay in second-person, addressing the many struggles and frustrations one can encounter when drafting a piece of writing. “You’ve pulled out a minor character and decided that the whole story should be told from her point of view. You’ve begun to write it that way, only to discover that this idea doesn’t work either,” he writes. Inspired by Sanz’s journey, write an essay that takes the reader through the challenges you faced in drafting a work of your own. What discoveries did you make, small and large, as you moved through versions of this piece?

Monmouth University

MFA Programs
MA
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Cross-Genre
West Long Branch, NJ
Application Deadline: 
Rolling Admissions
Application Fee: 
$60
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

Inciting Joy With Ross Gay

Caption: 

“People talk about epigenetic trauma all the time. People don’t talk about epigenetic joy. There can’t be one and not the other.” In this event hosted by the DC Public Library and Loyalty Bookstores, Ross Gay reads from and discusses his new essay collection, Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, 2022), with Clint Smith. A Q&A with Gay by Aimee Nezhukumatathil is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

2022 National Book Award Finalists Reading

Caption: 

In this video, finalists for the 2022 National Book Award in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translated literature, and young people’s literature read excerpts from their honored works. The event, hosted by writer Saraciea J. Fennell, is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the NYU Creative Writing Program.

Imani Perry’s National Book Award Speech

Caption: 

“I write for my people. I write because we children of the lash-scarred, rope-choked, bullet-ridden, desecrated are still here standing. I write for the field holler, the shout, the growl, the singer, the signer, and the signified. I write for the sinned-against and the sanctifying.” In this video, Imani Perry accepts the 2022 National Book Award in nonfiction for her book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (Ecco, 2022) with a powerful and moving speech.

An Evening With Emma Bolden and Chantel Acevedo

Caption: 

In this virtual Books & Books event, Emma Bolden reads from and speaks about her debut memoir, The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis (Soft Skull, 2022), with author Chantel Acevedo. Bolden’s memoir is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

It Came From the Closet

Caption: 

In this Charis Circle virtual event celebrating the essay anthology It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (Feminist Press, 2022), editor Joe Vallese speaks with contributors Sumiko Saulson, Richard Scott Larson, Addie Tsai, and Jude Ellison S. Doyle about the relationship between horror and queerness. The collection is featured in The Anthologist in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Iconic

11.17.22

In the opening pages of Hilton Als’s memoir My Pinup: A Paean to Prince (New Directions, 2022), the Pulitzer Prize–winning author reflects upon a confessional joke in Jamie Foxx’s 2002 stand-up special, I Might Need Security, in which the comic meets the iconic musician Prince for the first time and is so overcome that he can’t look him in the eye. “Being enthralled—or, more accurately, frightened and turned on by Prince and what his various looks said about an aspect of black male sexuality—was that something only comedians could talk about?” writes Als. Inspired by this reflection, write a personal essay about an encounter with an icon who shifted something within yourself. What excited or frightened you?

Pages

Subscribe to Creative Nonfiction