Writing the Personal Essay: Finding Your Story (OOL)
Osher Online | Available (Membership Required)
The personal essay, one of the oldest forms of creative nonfiction, blends storytelling, reflection, and analysis to give voice to lived experience. In this course, we will explore the personal essay as both art and self expression. Through readings, discussion, and writing exercises, we will study elements such as narrative arc, scene-setting, and reflection. We will draft our own essays, discovering how this enduring form helps us find our voices and tell our stories with clarity.
SATURDAYS, APRIL 18 THROUGH MAY 23 -- Each live session (via Zoom) is 90 minutes
Saturday, April 18
Saturday, April 25
Saturday, May 2
Saturday, May 9
Saturday, May 16
Saturday, May 23
Class schedule: Live lectures will take place via ZOOM
As this class is delivered by the National Resource Center for OLLIs (NRC) at Northwestern University, you will receive a welcome email from osheronline@northwestern.edu. The email will include your credentials (username & password) as well as a hyperlink to the Osher Online Website through which you will access your course website. Please save the link once you receive it. Multi-session courses will use this same link each week.
Lisa Stolley, Ph.D.
Lisa Stolley is a creative and professional writer, and an English professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies. Her fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Florida Review, Passages North, Other Voices, Washington Review, and others. She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Program for Writers at University of Illinois, Chicago.