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Turning Your Big Idea into an Essay Collection 10-Week Zoom Workshop with Samantha Mann, Starts Wednesday, January 6th, 2027
Turning Your Big Idea into an Essay Collection: a 10-Week Nonfiction Writing Workshop with Samantha Mann
Begins Wednesday, January 6th, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM ET
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Instructor Samantha Mann is a Brooklyn-based essayist and author. Her work can be found in The New York Times, Vogue, The Cut, Elle, TIME, and others. Her latest essay collection, Dyke Delusions, is now available. Her forthcoming memoir, Slouching Toward Sanity, will be published with Trio House Press in 2027.
Who is this class for?
This online writing class is for essayists who have several finished pieces—or one big obsession—and suspect there may be a book hidden inside them. It's built for intermediate nonfiction writers ready to move past individual essays and learn how to shape a cohesive, thematic collection. Whether you're just beginning a project or already have a substantial body of work in progress, you'll leave with a roadmap.
What to expect:
How do you know when you have a book instead of a handful of essays? The strongest essay collections aren't memoirs broken into chapters. They're conversations between essays, each approaching the same obsession from a different angle. Whether you're writing about motherhood, illness, queerness, money, pop culture, grief, travel, religion, work, or identity, this creative writing workshop will help you discover the larger question your work is asking and build a collection that feels intentionally designed rather than accidentally assembled.
Over ten weeks, you'll generate new work every single week while developing a book map, identifying the images and preoccupations that keep resurfacing, experimenting with structure and voice, and learning how essays can speak to, challenge, and deepen one another. Samantha's approach treats the central obsession beneath your work as the organizing principle for the entire book—not a theme applied after the fact, but the engine that determines what belongs and what doesn't.
You'll submit one piece of writing every other week (up to 2,500 words) and receive written instructor feedback addressing both the individual essay and how it contributes to the larger collection. Alongside that, guided peer workshops will give you feedback on your essays as well as your developing book map, thematic arc, and overall structure. This is a working nonfiction workshop for writers who want to finish something.
What are the writing goals?
In this course, students will produce a complete book map outlining the structure of their essay collection, along with 8–10 new essay starts, scenes, or substantial drafts generated through weekly writing exercises. Students will develop at least 2–3 expanded essays (approximately 2,000–5,000 words each) to serve as foundational pieces for the collection, and will articulate a working thematic statement naming the central question or obsession that connects the book. Each writer will finish with a personalized plan for organizing, expanding, and completing the remaining essays, plus written instructor feedback and constructive peer response on both individual essays and the overall book concept.
Readings may include excerpts from Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong (selected essays), Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, After the Eclipse by Sarah Perry (opening and selected chapters), They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib (selected essays), The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (excerpts), and Abandon Me by Melissa Febos (selected essays). Weekly readings also include "The Fourth State of Matter" by Jo Ann Beard, "The Querent" by Alexander Chee, selections from Girlhood by Melissa Febos, an excerpt from In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, "Time and Distance Overcome" by Eula Biss, and selections from The Book of Delights by Ross Gay.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Finding Your Big Idea
What separates an essay collection from a memoir? We'll look at collections built around questions rather than chronology, and at the difference between an obsession and a topic. In-class exercise: The Obsession Inventory—listing what you've written about repeatedly, what you can't stop thinking about, what people always associate with you, and what you avoid. Writing exercise: three possible book premises beginning "I'm obsessed with...", "I keep returning to...", and "Every essay I write is secretly about..." Readings: Jo Ann Beard, "The Fourth State of Matter"; Alexander Chee, "The Querent."
Week 2: Finding the Book Inside Your Essays
How essays communicate with one another, and how to spot recurring images—mothers, birds, bodies, weather, houses, jobs, religion, food. Exercise: map every essay idea you currently have onto a single sheet of paper and find the connections. Readings: selections from Girlhood by Melissa Febos; excerpt from In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado as a model of thematic variation.
Week 3: Building Around Questions Instead of Answers
The best collections investigate rather than explain. "What does it mean to belong?" instead of "This is what happened." Writing exercise: write one essay that asks a question you cannot answer. Readings: Eula Biss, "Time and Distance Overcome"; selections from The Book of Delights by Ross Gay.
Week 4: Writing Around the Subject
Sometimes the most interesting essay isn't about the thing. Using pop culture, travel, history, science, sports, and objects to illuminate personal experience. Readings: Jia Tolentino; Sloane Crosley.
Week 5: Voice as the Glue
Voice creates cohesion even when essays differ dramatically in subject and form—humorous, lyric, critical, academic, conversational, hybrid. Readings: Samantha Irby; David Sedaris.
Week 6: Variety Without Repetition
How to avoid writing the same essay ten times. We'll work through braided, segmented, list, epistolary, lyric, reported, travel, and criticism structures. Readings: Maggie Nelson; Hanif Abdurraqib.
Week 7: Expanding Your World
Research inside personal essays: interviews, archives, statistics, history, and cultural criticism. Readings: Rebecca Solnit; Kiese Laymon.
Week 8: Sequencing the Collection
Writing exercise: write the essay your collection still needs. Readings: tables of contents from Bad Feminist, Wow, No Thank You., and Trick Mirror.
Week 9: Discovering What's Missing
Every collection has gaps. What emotional note have you avoided? Readings: selections from Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong; Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, to discuss thematic cohesion even within memoir.
Week 10: Editing 101—Turning Drafts into a Collection
Identifying the "heart" of an essay. Cutting scenes that don't serve the larger collection. Recognizing when two essays are actually one, or when one should become two. Avoiding repetition while embracing recurring themes. Building recurring images, symbols, and motifs intentionally. Line editing versus developmental editing. Creating emotional momentum across a collection.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- A complete book map outlining the structure of your essay collection
- 8–10 new essay starts, scenes, or substantial drafts generated through weekly writing exercises
- At least 2–3 expanded essays of approximately 2,000–5,000 words each, ready to anchor the collection
- A working thematic statement articulating the central question connecting your book
- A personalized plan for organizing, expanding, and completing the remaining essays
- Written instructor feedback and guided peer response on both individual essays and your overall book concept
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Tuition is $795 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
- Instructor: Samantha Mann
- Begins Wednesday, January 6th, 2027
- Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM ET
- Tuition is $795 USD.