Andrea A. Firth

Co-writing
Time
extended
thru 9/27!!!
 

NEW CLASS
Lyric Essay
Starts 10/11
Details below
 

Andrea A. Firth is a writer, editor, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is cofounder of Diablo Writers’ Workshop where she teaches creative writing, provides editorial consulting, and supports a vibrant writing community. Andrea received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Saint Mary’s College of California where she also teaches design thinking and life design. Her focus is personal essay, and in 2021 she was a finalist for the Missouri Review's Perkoff Prize. She was a longtime contributor to Oakland Magazine and has published hundreds of articles in news outlets and magazines. Inspired by a handful of old family photos, Andrea is working on a collection of essays, which explore what's real, what's imagined and what lies in between. Examples of her recently published work are listed with links below.

Co-Writing Time

Inspiration. Motivation. Accountability.

Tuesdays, 9:00 am -10:15 am PST
NOW thru September 27
FREE. On Zoom.

Join me on Tuesday mornings (PST) and spend an hour writing in community. After a brief check in, we'll get down to writing (audio muted, camera on or off). Generate new work or Revise a work-in- progress. I'll provide a prompt each week for those looking for a start, but this time and space is for you to write about whatever you choose. Sixty minutes later, I'll "ring the bell," we'll do a quick check back, and off you go. No need to register in advance.  Same Zoom link each week

Lyric Essay:

Exploring the Unexpected

Tuesdays 9:00 - 11:00 am PST or Wednesdays 1:00 - 3:00 pm PST
October 11/12 thru December 6/7, 8 weeks
No class Thanksgiving week
8 weeks/$460

     The lyric essay is a piece of writing with a visible/ stand-out/ unusual structure that explores/ forecasts/ gestures to an idea in an unexpected way. -Randon Billings Noble

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We'll read a wide range of unique  essays (including flash, segmented, collage, braided, mosaic and more), explore the power of the many lyric forms, and uncover how it's done. Craft essays and meditations by the authors will inform us too. Then we'll put what we've discovered to work in freewrites and 2 full workshops with written feedback for each writer.

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Choose one:  Tuesday mornings or Wednesday afternoons 

Class Text: A Harp in the Stars , An Anthology of Lyric Essays  Edited by Random Billings Noble

Please purchase the class text in advance of our start--available online thru bookshop.org

or your independent bookstore--try mine Orinda Books. Supplemental readings will be provided.

Craft and the Writing Life

How the Literary Journal Landscape Is and Isn't Changing

Jane Friedman's Blog, April 26, 2022

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You Always Remember Your First

Brevity Nonfiction Blog, April, 2022

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Seven Drafts, an Interview with Allison K Williams

Catapult, December 1, 2021

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What Do I Call This? How to Title a Personal Essay
Brevity Nonfiction Blog, September, 2021

Tomato Ready: Publishing, Patience and Pleasant Surprises
Brevity Nonfiction Blog, June, 2021

My Instagram's Insights

Medium, August 5, 2021