Writing the Lyric Essay — 6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop with Lyzette Wanzer Starts Wednesday, May 5th, 2027
Lyric Essay Writing Workshop: Read, Draft, Revise | May 2027 Online
Writing the Lyric Essay: A 6-Week Online Nonfiction Writing Workshop with Lyzette Wanzer
Begins Wednesday, May 5, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:
- Los Angeles (PDT): 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Chicago (CDT): 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- New York (EDT): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Now Enrolling!
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.
Instructor Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. Her work appears in over thirty literary journals, magazines, books, and newspapers. Her most recent article appears in the Fall 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. Library Journal named her book, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives (Chicago Review Press), a Top 10 Best Social Sciences Book. Her articles have appeared in Essay Daily, The Naked Truth, and the San Francisco University High School Journal. Her research interests include professional development for creative writers, Black feminism, critical race theory, and the lyrical essay form. Lyzette is a contributor to Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins (Wayne State University Press) and The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing).
Who is this class for?
This intermediate-level nonfiction workshop is for writers who already have experience in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction and want to try the lyric essay with a guide. Prior writing experience is required and assumed. Come ready to write a new lyric essay, revise it several times, and share early drafts with your peers.
What to expect:
The lyric essay has become one of the most popular forms in multiple disciplines, from journalism to the personal essay. Purpura and Forché have written them. So have Didion and Dillard. But what, exactly, is this form? Poetic essay or essayistic poem? Both, or neither? The lyric essay uses a series of images or ideas, rather than chronicle or argument, to sculpt a narrative. Often inconclusive, it reaches past classical frames toward a meditative sense of place and displacement.
In this six-week online writing workshop, you will read and analyze lyric essays both in class and in weekly assignments, learning what sets the form apart from other kinds of essay. You will begin with an essay map, modeled on Nina Gaby's well-known "Mapping the Lyric Essay," then draft a lyric essay of your own that carries the hallmarks discussed in the first class. From there you revise, week by week, with written instructor critique and in-class peer feedback built on the Praise Sandwich method. Lyzette provides every reading, and each week you come prepared to discuss the homework and in-class pieces.
By the final meeting you will have a finished essay, a jump-started second one, and a sense of where lyric essays find homes: the journals and contests that publish them, and how to write the author bio that goes with your submission.
What are the writing goals?
In this course, students will write, revise, and complete one lyric essay of about 1,000 words and begin a second lyric essay. Students receive weekly written instructor critique on essays submitted by the homework deadline in Weeks 3 through 5, plus in-class peer critique in Weeks 3 and 4.
Readings
All readings are provided by the instructor. Readings may include "Baudelaire Street" by Chen Li; "Signatures," "Hallmarks of the Lyric Essay," "Portrait," and "Tracks of Passage" by Lyzette Wanzer; "Still Things" by Amy Butcher; "Some Space" by Michael Martone; "Walking" by Linda Hogan; "The Colonel" by Carolyn Forché; "I Survived the Blizzard of '79" by Beth Ann Fennelly; and "What's So Great About Submitting to Literary Magazines?" by Becky Tuch.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Characteristics of the lyric essay; readings; Nina Gaby's map; the Adverb Pox; the PV Pox; read and discuss "Still Things" and "Some Space"
Week 2: Homework review: present essay maps; discussion of readings; what critique means in this workshop; proper manuscript format; in-class reading and discussion of "Baudelaire Street"
Week 3: Homework review: "Signatures" and first drafts; read and discuss "The Colonel"; what's a Praise Sandwich?; Partner Praise Sandwich (PPS) #1; PPS #2
Week 4: Homework review: "Portrait"; drafts due; PPS #3; PPS #4; read and discuss "I Survived the Blizzard of '79"
Week 5: Homework review: no readings, only drafts due; read and discuss "Tracks of Passage"; places to consider submitting lyric essays: journals and contests; essay shares
Week 6: Homework review: "What's So Great About Submitting to Literary Magazines?"; final drafts due; lyric essay #2: jump start!; jump start shares; author bios; essay shares
Final assignment: Continue to submit your essays to publications and contests. When you get good news, don't forget to tell Lyzette about it!
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Identify the hallmarks that distinguish a lyric essay from other essay forms
- Map a lyric essay before drafting it, using Nina Gaby's model
- Write, revise, and complete a 1,000-word lyric essay with written instructor critique
- Give and receive useful workshop feedback using the Praise Sandwich method
- Begin a second lyric essay and leave with a plan for finishing it
- Know where to submit lyric essays and how to write the author bio that goes with them
TESTIMONIALS:
I wrote. I re-wrote. I submitted. I was introduced to many facets of writing including: reading, listening, critiquing, as well as writing and building community with other writers. Class is extremely well structured to get all the elements included in 2 hours. Thank you to Lyzette.
— R. Shimmin
Exceeded my expectations. I picked this class because I liked the full cycle of writing, revising, and submitting. I left with a good sense of how to actually build a writing/submitting practice. Very practical. Lyzette is a really good teacher.
— E. Milligan
Lyzette's dedication was amazing. The amount of time and effort Lizette put in so that we had a piece we could submit was impressive. The amount of work I had to put in was much more than I expected, but the workshop description did say to come prepared to work!
— Anonymous
Exceeded my expectations! It was so structured and Lyzette read our works carefully, and gave us thoughtful, useful feedback.
— Anonymous
Yes! I accomplished all of my goals: sharpened writing, unleashed creativity, met cool people, and more! Lyzette was excellent! Very good energy, helpful feedback on our essays, and good handle on how to teach a difficult student.
— D. MacMillan
Yes! I learned so much about lyric essay writing and the submission process, and the structure helped me produce something I'm really proud of. I wish I'd taken this years ago when I first tried submitting essays.
— T. Boodhoo (aka T. Rex)
[The] practical skills were critical. If not for this class [I] would've spent a long time learning from trial and error.
— C. Yang
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Tuition is $445 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: Lyzette Wanzer
- Begins Wednesday, May 5, 2027
- Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
- Tuition is $445 USD.
- Class is limited to 12 students.