Next up in our showcase of spring guest instructors is Jessica P. Ogilvie, who was recently named a contributing editor at Playboy! She's teaching our first online Essay Writing workshop beginning April 19. We hope you'll sign up and get our online workshops off to a strong start!
First things first: our online classes are just like our in-person classes, discussing and workshopping writing in real time. You'll click on a URL at the time the class begins and you and the rest of the class (and Jessica!) will appear Brady Bunch opening credits style. You'll be able to see and hear each other easily, just as if you're sitting around a living room. (No driving plus students from all over the world—maybe! Our first online class had someone joining from New Zealand.) The evening workshops start at 5 pm so if you live in the U.S., hopefully the timing works for you.
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Jessica P. Ogilvie is a Los Angeles-based journalist specializing in creative nonfiction and longform. She is a contributing editor at Playboy, and her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Condé Nast Traveler, VICE, LA Weekly, GOOD, Los Angeles Magazine, Inked Magazine, The Hairpin, LAist, Mel Magazine, and more. In 2017, Jessica received the Los Angeles Press Club Award for Soft News Feature Article and honorable mention for the M.I.N. Editorial Awards for Feature Article. In 2016, she was a finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Award for Investigative Reporting. A graduate of New York University, Jessica has appeared on The Nonfiction Podcast, Huffington Post Live, KPFK, Nerdist’s JV Club podcast, and more to discuss her work, and she is an invited guest speaker at Loyola Marymount University’s journalism program.
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Essay Writing with Jessica P. Ogilvie
Thursdays
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm (Pacific)
April 19, 2021 to June 7, 2021
The essay is one of the most durable and varied forms of literature, ranging from creative nonfiction and immersive journalism to arts criticism and lyric prose. Unlike other classes focused on short memoir and personal essay, this workshop is designed to produce inquisitive essays in which the primary focus is not solely internal and the work of memory, but rather fuses the writer’s experiences and interactions with the world using techniques of nonfiction, new journalism, and fiction. The essay genre invites writers to explore and discover what they think about a particular subject, whether politics, the arts, science, current events, family, travel, or something else entirely. A well-crafted essay is an act of engagement that leaves the writer, as well as the reader, changed. During these eight weeks, students will participate in a rigorous discussion of published essays and student work in an atmosphere that prioritizes community, craft, and commitment to the practice of being a fully immersed writer.
Enrollment limit: 8 students
$420 new; $380 returning
Learn more or enroll at www.writingworkshopsla.com/online.