Writing the Hermit Crab Essay

5 Thursdays, August 1 – August 29

The hermit crab essay offers endless and provocative ways to write nonfiction. In this course, writers will use alternative structures to explore their experiences—for example, a dictionary entry for grief that explores the loss of one’s parent or a how-to manual for dismantling a home that explores one’s divorce. Writers will read and discuss several published essays, generate essay ideas and drafts, and workshop one essay of their choosing.

Sarah Cedeño’s work is forthcoming or has appeared in The Journal, 2 Bridges, The Pinch, The Baltimore Review, New World Writing, The Rumpus, Hippocampus Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Sarah holds an MFA from Goddard College in Vermont. She lives in Brockport, NY with her husband and two sons, and teaches writing at the College at Brockport.