Saturday, September 20th, 2025

Live Seminar via Zoom from 12:00PM - 2:00PM Central 

Now Enrolling!

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Instructor Marin Sardy is the author of the critically lauded memoir The Edge of Every Day (Pantheon, 2019). Sardy’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Tin House, Guernica, the Missouri Review, and many other journals, as well as in two award-winning photography books. Her essays have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and three times listed as “notable” in the Best American series, and she has been granted residency fellowships at Hawthornden Castle, Catwalk Institute, and the Museum of Motherhood. She teaches memoir and personal essay writing.

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

This two-hour intensive seminar/workshop is open to writers of all genres. The course will begin with a lecture and slideshow, with a deep dive into the topic of metaphors. First, I’ll explore broad questions such as: What is a metaphor? How do metaphors shape the way we think? What are the different kinds of metaphors? And why are metaphors useful for writers?

Then, we’ll move into key craft considerations that are essential for writing with strong metaphors, with examples drawn from all genres of writing. We’ll look at what makes a good metaphor good and what kinds of common metaphor mistakes writers should avoid. I’ll also offer tips on how writers can find their own original metaphors. This will be followed by a Q+A and discussion to consider further and clarify the material covered in the lecture.

In the active portion of the class, students will delve deeply into the art of using metaphor in creative writing and will work to discover strong metaphors from within the source material of their own lives.

As a group, we’ll do a close reading of an example text, followed by a structured series of exercises aimed at helping writers explore their own memories for the kinds of potent details and imagery that may be mined to generate vivid, apt, and original metaphors. Then, we’ll break into small groups for sharing and active listening before coming together once more for a few closing words.