Taught by Jack Christian, author of the poetry collections Family System, winner of the Colorado Poetry Prize, published by Colorado State University's Center for Literary Publishing, and Domestic Yoga, published by Groundhog Poetry Press. His work has appeared in periodicals including Bennington Review, Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, ArtForum, Atticus Review, Cleveland Review of Books, The Diagram, The Journal, and Slate. Jack holds an MFA in poetry from University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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

The lyric essay is a hybrid form that combines the personal essay with the figurative language of poetry, and often includes research and reportage as well. Because of its hybridity, the lyric essay allows writers to bring their whole selves to the page, navigating subject matter that might otherwise remain too complex and too nuanced to attempt. This is the lyric essay’s promise. But, this promise is double-edged. The lyric essay seems to require a writer’s whole self as well.

Given this, it’s no wonder the form is often guided by obsession, anxiety, uncertainty, and passion. When reading a successful lyric essay, a reader is likely to experience the most generous of gifts: the feeling of joining someone else’s brain. For writers, is there anything more noble to offer than this?

In our six week class, we’ll plant ourselves in the rich overlap between the essay and poetry, allowing our obsessions, our desires, and our intuition to guide us. Beginning with Maggie Nelson’s Bluets (2009) and branching out from there, we’ll study exemplars of the form as we design and begin to draft (or, should I say accumulate?) our own projects. Along the way, we’ll discuss our readings, share our discoveries, and undertake generative, low-stakes writing assignments meant to inspire us and grow our crafts.

An additional benefit of attempting lyric essays is that they are like cross-training for one’s writing practice. Its multiple modes of expression encourages writers to dabble, sharpening one’s skills in multiple directions at once, while never locking us into any one structure, tone, or style of narration. In this way, the lyrics essay is a most forgiving of forms. It is great for getting a lot of writing done in a short time, and for avoiding writer’s block. The challenge arising from this is often one of organization: What to keep in, what to leave out, what order to present it all? But, what better way to explore these dilemmas than in a nurturing community of writers who are dealing with the same issues? That’s what our class will be about.

Students can expect weekly reading and writing assignments, including opportunities to share and to respond to one another’s work. Though our class will be asynchronous, we will hold one optional zoom meeting at the beginning of our session, and, if there is interest, an additional one at the end of our session. The course is designed for students at all levels and experience in writing the lyric essay.