Saturday, January 13th, 2024

Live Seminar Via Zoom 10AM – 12PM CST

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Led by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman, whose debut, Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir, was named a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award, described as “moving” by the New Yorker, “outrageously funny” by O, The Oprah Magazine, and “fascinating,” by NPR. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The New York Times Magazine, and Brevity, among others. She is an Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University.

Learn more about Jessica in our Meet the Teaching Artist series.

Americans worship the god of work. We spend more hours on the job and take fewer vacations than people in other countries.

Yet relatively few literary memoirs focus on the workplace. This seminar aims to fix that. We’ll get to work writing about our jobs—past jobs, present jobs, jobs we can get just to write about what happens at them. What do our experiences reveal about broader societal issues? How do we write about our jobs without getting fired?

WHAT TO EXPECT:

• Discussions of short excerpts from authors who have written about life on the job.
• Writing exercises where we practice how to bring a reader into your life on the job.
• Sharing your writing with the group for immediate encouragement (optional).
  

YOU'LL TAKE HOME:

• Ideas for how to begin writing about your job in a creative way.
• Immediate, encouraging feedback on in-class writing exercises for those who want to share.
• Tips for how to write about your life on the job without getting demoted or fired.
• Tips on how to see yourself as a character on the page.
• A guided prompt to help you generate writing.

TESTIMONIALS:

"Dr. Jessica Hindman's class on Memoir & Memory: Creating Distance From Your Past Self was eye-opening. She gave us three short pieces to read plus a worksheet that was incredibly useful. The examples were crucial to understanding her lessons. She has a simple, direct approach to craft and an easy engaging manner. She didn't dwell & was well prepared. She offered two 10-minute exercises during the class and we got to hear some of the work written by students. The class flew by. Worth taking."

"Jessica was phenomenal. Nice participatory encouragement. Practical advice. Wonderful shared ideas."

"There was such a great mix of lecture, handouts, reading, writing exercise and class participation."

"I learned a lot of Creative Nonfiction techniques from Jessica that I think will greatly help me in my writing."

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman | Live via Zoom

• Saturday, January 13th, 2024 | 10AM - 12PM CST
  

• Seminar is fully ONLINE and meets via Zoom
  

Instructor Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman (Chick-KET-toe HĪND-man) grew up in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her debut, Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir was named a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award, a “best book of 2019 ” by Amazon and Vox, described as “moving” by the New Yorker, “outrageously funny” by O, The Oprah Magazine, and “fascinating,” by NPR. Her recent writing has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The New York Times Magazine, Brevity, and Hippocampus. She holds a BA in Middle Eastern studies and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and a PhD in English from the University of North Texas. She is an Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University where she recently won the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award and the Excellence in Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activity Award. She lives in Newport, Kentucky with her husband, the astronomer Nathan De Lee.