As I revised my personal statement college essay for the ninth time, I grumbled in frustration. I had spent the past month editing, rewriting, and brainstorming topics that would hopefully let ...

When I first taught personal narrative in my freshmen Literature and Writing course last year I planned a traditional unit. I practiced descriptive writing techniques by having them listen to the ...

I have yet to fully understand my exhaustion, so I must, regrettably but unavoidably, write one final personal narrative about my past personal narratives. November of 2021. My Common App college ...

"I do not think that the vocation of writer is superior to any other," writes Melissa Febos in her newest essay collection, "but I do believe it is the most useful life for me, the one in which I can ...

The call to write your life story is a jar of honey, sweet and alluring, sticky and messy. To write about our lives is joy-filled and terrifying. As someone who’s been teaching and coaching memoirists ...

In the 2007 movie “Freedom Writers,” Hilary Swank stands in front of a classroom of troubled high schoolers. They need to write down their stories, she tells them. Otherwise, when they die, “no one is ...

For many, writing is a path to healing. It is praised as cathartic, transformative, even redemptive—and often, it is. But as I discovered during my MFA in creative nonfiction, after 35 years as a ...