Four Mondays: January 29 and February 5, 12, 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET Online
Lecture and Discussion with Writing Exercises. This live class will be recorded and available for viewing for a week after each class.
What does it mean to keep a journal? What is gained, kept, discovered? How is it different from other forms of writing? Virginia Woolf called hers a “capacious hold-all … loose knit and yet not slovenly.” Joyce Carol Oates thinks of hers as “a counterworld: one world to balance the other.” Emerson, who kept a diary for nearly sixty years, reminds us that “the unrecorded life is not worth examining.”
In this class we will actively journal through in-class prompts and take-home exercises. We will read published diary entries to see the range of possible forms and styles a journal can take. No experience necessary – just bring a journal (half-full or empty), a pen, your honesty, courage, curiosity, and a willingness to both explore and play.
This class is open to all levels of writers.
By registering for this class, students agree they will follow these terms:
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Abide by our “Code of Conduct” while attending the class
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Will not share overtly obscene, hateful, or objectionable content.
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Will not share content that students do not have the rights to.
Any work that perpetuates violence, inappropriate sexual conduct, racism, or negative stereotypes will not receive edits by the instructor or be circulated in the class.
Code of Conduct:
Politics and Prose Bookstore is devoted to cultivating community and strengthening the common good through books, author talks, literary programs, and respectful dialogue. We strive to foster a safe, welcoming, inclusive environment for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or ability. In that spirit, we ask everyone in this shared, communal space to treat each other equally, fairly, and thoughtfully; honor different voices, life experiences, and points of view; and celebrate the diversity that makes our community richer and stronger. Hate, discrimination, and disrespect have no place at P&P; kindness, patience, and tolerance always do.
Four Mondays: January 29 and February 5, 12 and 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET Online
Required Reading:
Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal by Alexandra Johnson (9780316121569)
Randon Billings Noble is an essayist. Her collection Be with Me Always was published by the University of Nebraska Press in March 2019 and her anthology of lyric essays, A Harp in the Stars, was published by Nebraska in 2021. Other work has appeared in the Modern Love column of The New York Times, The Rumpus, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere. Currently she is the founding editor of the online literary magazine After the Art and teaches in West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA Program and Goucher's MFA in Nonfiction Program. You can read more at her website, www.randonbillingsnoble.com.
REFUND POLICY: Please note that we can issue class refunds up until seven (7) days before the first class session.
