To ensure you don’t stay in the dark, we’ve decided to invite a very special guest to help shed some light on the process of looking for an agent — someone whose work we’ve been reading and admiring for a while now. For this week’s Open Book live video conversation, ’s executive editor, Jesse Sposato, will chat with literary agent, author and creator of the newsletter Agents & Books, . They’ll talk about what you need to know when reaching out to an agent, the misconceptions of what’s needed and what isn’t, and much more.

Please join us this Thursday, August 6, at 1:00 p.m. ET on Substack Live.

RSVP + add to your cal!

For more on how the book publishing world really works, dive into one of these conversations below, or catch up on all of our Open Book conversations here.

A reminder, too, that tomorrow morning is everyone’s favorite hour of the week, Writers’ Room! (It’s ours anyway.) ICYMI, we meet every Wednesday morning to write together. Great for accountability and community. Join us at 8 a.m. ET + PT using this Zoom link — it’s the same link for both time zones — and if you’re asked for a passcode, enter 824784. (You don’t have to be a subscriber to join, though that would be lovely!)

Hope to see you there!

Which is why, for our latest Open Book chat, Creative Nonfiction founder Lee Gutkind had Booklist editor-in-chief, Donna Seaman, on to answer these questions and more. Click play above to watch a recording of the whole conversation. (Not a paid subscriber yet? Consider becoming one to watch this full recording along with our entire archive of Open Book video conversations, get 20% off writing classes, and much more!)

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And before you break for the weekend, please join us on this late July summer Friday for an Open Book live video conversation. Today at 1 p.m. ET, Lee Gutkind will speak with Donna Seaman, editor-in-chief of Booklist, for a special session on How Book Reviews Really Work. They’ll talk about how books are selected for review, what editors are looking for, the current landscape of literary criticism and more.

Again, please join us live, today, Friday, July 31, at 1:00 p.m. ET on Zoom.

RSVP + Add to Your Cal

The direct Zoom link for this conversation — today! — is here.

(If you are asked for a passcode enter 408316)

For more on how the book publishing and journalism worlds really work, catch up on all of our Open Book conversations or dive into one of these:

For our brand-new edition of this class, we’re focused on family. This new course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The prompts will help you find your own unique storytelling approach to essays about your family members, and your relationships with them and other people.

This class is self-guided so you can join and respond to the prompts on your own time, at your own pace. You aren’t required to participate every day; the goal is to challenge yourself to write as much as you can. You might write just a few sentences, or when you’re inspired, much more. Class starts this Saturday, August 1, so sign up now!

Learn More + Sign Up

Our latest Personals, piece, “‘You’ve Got to Keep Going Till It Bleeds,’” details advice the writer, Dr. Christopher Hartnick, received from a patient early on in his career that he’s held close ever since. If you’ve read it, we’re guessing it struck a chord like it did for us — the meaningful relationship, the momentary role reversal, the lasting effect something profound can have on us… (And if you haven’t read it yet, we highly recommend that you do!)

With this piece on our minds (and in our hearts) right now, we’ve been thinking about times when we’ve learned from someone unexpected. We wanted to turn the question to you, as well. So, tell us about a time when you have learned from someone unexpected or surprising. Did your seatmate on the bus offer the very words of wisdom you’d been needing to hear? Maybe your niece came through in a way you hadn’t seen coming?

Tell us all about it in 300 words or less for a chance to have your piece published on our sister site, , and to receive a free year-long subscription to both Narratively and Narratively Academy. Submissions are due by Sunday night, August 2, and you can expect to hear back from us soon after with the results. Looking forward to reading your entries!

Submit Here!

Need essay inspiration?

Check out the winners of our past flash essay contests here.

Read Our Flash Essays

For this week’s Open Book live video conversation, Lee Gutkind will speak with Donna Seaman, editor-in-chief of Booklist, for a special session on How Book Reviews Really Work. They’ll talk about how books are selected for review, what editors are looking for, the current landscape of literary criticism, and more.

Please join us live, Friday, July 31 at 1:00 p.m. ET on Zoom.

RSVP + Add to Your Cal

The direct Zoom link for this conversation on July 31 is here.

(If you are asked for a passcode enter 408316)

For more on how the book publishing and journalism worlds really work, catch up on all of our Open Book conversations or dive into one of these:

Class starts this Wednesday, July 29 and there are just three seats left, so if you’d like to join be sure to grab one ASAP. Read on for all the details and to sign up.

UPDATE: This class is now sold out, but we will offer a new session as soon as there are enough students on the advance wait list. If you join the advance waiting list for the next session, we’ll make sure you’re the first to know next time it’s offered.

Cost: $325

Class Size Limit: 15

Paid subscribers to Narratively Academy get 20% off all classes, including this one. If you already are a paid subscriber, scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the paid subscriber promo code. Or click here to become a paid subscriber today.

One of the hardest things we can do as personal essayists is to be vulnerable in our writing. It’s also one of the most important. Being able to admit on paper our flaws, fears, mistakes, failures, embarrassing thoughts for all the world to see can be, well, very, very difficult. In this analysis-meets-generative class, we are going to look head-on at how some of the most successful authors write vulnerably in their own work, how they talk about it, what it means to write vulnerably when others are involved (often people we love!) and what we’re so afraid of.

We will do this through close readings of several exceptional essays from some of the top writers of today and yesterday — from authors such as Roxane Gay, Brian Doyle, Kiese Laymon, Meredith Hall, Meghan Daum and more — as well as craft pieces and author interviews. In class, we will discuss and analyze our readings, and then to give our learnings a test-spin — and because we’re writers who like to write! — we will end each class with a generative writing exercise and optional share aloud.

This class will meet four times this summer, on Wednesdays, from 12-1:15 p.m. ET, starting July 29 and running through August 19.

In this class, we will work to answer questions like:

• What does it mean to write vulnerably?

• How can we write vulnerably, well?

• What does it mean to write vulnerably when other people are involved (often people we love)?

• What are we so afraid of when we write vulnerably, anyway?

• Does vulnerability have to be shocking and/or controversial?

This class is right for you if…

• You write personal essays and wish to go deeper, but aren’t sure how.

• You’re new to essay writing or you’ve been doing it for a long time, but would like to take a close look at how the pros do it — and let’s face it, you probably won’t do that on your own!

• You dabble in personal essay writing, but could use some accountability, guidance, inspiration, motivation, and/or someone to light a proverbial sparkler under you.

This class takes place on Wednesdays from 12 to 1:15 p.m. ET, starting on July 29 and running through August 19.

All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and are accessible to students anywhere in the world. This class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students, but live attendance and participation at a majority of class sessions is strongly encouraged.

Instructor Bio: Narratively executive editor Jesse Sposato is a longtime journalist, essayist and editor living in the Catskills. She has written about feminism, friendship, adolescence, culture, parenting and more for a variety of outlets, including Vanity Fair, InStyle, Slate, Gloria, The Rumpus, Memoir Land, The Bump and many others. At Narratively, she edits the Personals section, and has worked on many of the stories in our Memoir, Deep Dives and Secret Lives sections.

Prior to joining Narratively, Jesse was a regular contributor to Refinery29 and wrote Urban Campers, a series about people living in RVs in NYC, for New York magazine’s Bedford + Bowery for over two years. She also co-founded Sadie Magazine, an online counterculture publication, which she edited for six years. Jesse received an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, and has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center and Wildacres. She is currently working on a collection of essays about coming of age in the suburbs, discovering punk rock and being boy crazy.

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

More: Check out all of our Narratively Academy online writing classes here.

Read more

Our popular month-long prompts courses are designed to help you break through writer’s block and generate lots of ideas for your memoir writing. Developed by Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnes, these self-guided classes help you figure out what you really want to write and how to get it started. Next month, we’re focused on family.

Everyone has family issues to write about…and we all put it off, because it’s too hard too complicated, or we just don’t know how to write about the people closest to us. This new course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The prompts will help you find your own unique storytelling appro…

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If this news finds you needing an immediate Dinty W. Moore/flash essay fix, well, us too. And so we’re re-sharing our excellent interview with Dinty, conducted by none other than Lee Gutkind, in which they talk about — among other things, like Dinty’s garden and their long history together — what the heck a flash essay is! If you’re wondering yourself, this one’s for you.

Open Book recordings are usually for paying subscribers, but we’re making this one free for a limited time so everyone can check it out. If you feel inclined to become a paying subscriber to support all the independent content we create, we would so greatly appreciate it. Thank you for considering! 🙏❤️

Subscribe now

Mary and Lee talked about how the Authors Guild helps writers navigate contracts, legal disputes, copyright questions and other challenges that arise throughout a writing career. Click play above to watch the full video.

Beginning Wednesday, July 29, at , our executive editor, Jesse Sposato, will be teaching a four-week class on How to Be Vulnerable in Your Writing. Today, Jesse shares some of her favorite essays that do exactly that.

P.S. And after you dig into this post, head over to our chat to share your #WeeklyWin — we want to hear about the writing goal you smashed this week, no matter the size!

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Mary will discuss how the Authors Guild helps writers navigate contracts, legal disputes, copyright questions and other challenges that arise throughout a writing career—and how authors can better protect both their work and themselves.

The publishing landscape is changing fast, and there are few people better positioned than Mary to help make sense of it. Join us live Thursday at 1pm on Zoom.

(If you are asked for a passcode, enter 362366)

Join Live on Zoom

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In this brand new workshop with cultural critic Alizah Salario, you’ll learn how to identify compelling cultural entry points, develop your own perspective, and craft essays that engage with the conversations happening around us right now. If you’ve ever read an essay about a current cultural trend or moment and thought, I wish I’d written that, this class may be for you. Class takes places tomorrow, Wednesday, July 15 at 1pm ET and we have just a few seats left, so if you’d like to join, sign up now!

Learn More + Sign Up

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If you’ve joined us for Lee’s past Open Book chats, you know he has interviewed fascinating guests about everything from writing unforgettable dialogue to the secret life of an obituary writer. This time, he’s zooming out to tackle an even bigger topic: the state of publishing itself.

This Thursday, July 16 at 1 p.m. ET, Lee will sit down with Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild and the Authors Guild Foundation, for a conversation about the forces reshaping the writing world. They'll explore some of the biggest issues facing writers today, including AI, book banning, free speech, and the rapidly changing publishing landscape.

Mary will discuss how the Authors Guild helps writers navigate contracts, legal disputes, copyright questions and other challenges that arise throughout a writing career—and how authors can better protect both their…

Read more

This class is now sold out, but we will offer a new session as soon as there are enough students on the advance wait list. If you join the advance waiting list for the next session, we’ll make sure you’re the first to know next time it’s offered.

Cost: $325

Class Size Limit: 15

Paid subscribers to Narratively Academy get 20% off all classes, including this one. If you already are a paid subscriber, scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the paid subscriber promo code. Or click here to become a paid subscriber today.

One of the hardest things we can do as personal essayists is to be vulnerable in our writing. It’s also one of the most important. Being able to admit on paper our flaws, fears, mistakes, failures, embarrassing thoughts for all the world to see can be, well, very, very difficult. In this analysis-meets-generative class, we are going to look head-on at how some of the most successful authors write vulnerably in their own work, how they talk about it, what it means to write vulnerably when others are involved (often people we love!) and what we’re so afraid of.

We will do this through close readings of several exceptional essays from some of the top writers of today and yesterday — from authors such as Roxane Gay, Brian Doyle, Kiese Laymon, Meredith Hall, Meghan Daum and more — as well as craft pieces and author interviews. In class, we will discuss and analyze our readings, and then to give our learnings a test-spin — and because we’re writers who like to write! — we will end each class with a generative writing exercise and optional share aloud.

This class will meet four times this summer, on Wednesdays, from 12-1:15 p.m. ET, starting July 29 and running through August 19.

In this class, we will work to answer questions like:

• What does it mean to write vulnerably?

• How can we write vulnerably, well?

• What does it mean to write vulnerably when other people are involved (often people we love)?

• What are we so afraid of when we write vulnerably, anyway?

• Does vulnerability have to be shocking and/or controversial?

This class is right for you if…

• You write personal essays and wish to go deeper, but aren’t sure how.

• You’re new to essay writing or you’ve been doing it for a long time, but would like to take a close look at how the pros do it — and let’s face it, you probably won’t do that on your own!

• You dabble in personal essay writing, but could use some accountability, guidance, inspiration, motivation, and/or someone to light a proverbial sparkler under you.

This class takes place on Wednesdays from 12 to 1:15 p.m. ET, starting on July 29 and running through August 19.

All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and are accessible to students anywhere in the world. This class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students, but live attendance and participation at a majority of class sessions is strongly encouraged.

Instructor Bio: Narratively executive editor Jesse Sposato is a longtime journalist, essayist and editor living in the Catskills. She has written about feminism, friendship, adolescence, culture, parenting and more for a variety of outlets, including Vanity Fair, InStyle, Slate, Gloria, The Rumpus, Memoir Land, The Bump and many others. At Narratively, she edits the Personals section, and has worked on many of the stories in our Memoir, Deep Dives and Secret Lives sections.

Prior to joining Narratively, Jesse was a regular contributor to Refinery29 and wrote Urban Campers, a series about people living in RVs in NYC, for New York magazine’s Bedford + Bowery for over two years. She also co-founded Sadie Magazine, an online counterculture publication, which she edited for six years. Jesse received an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, and has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center and Wildacres. She is currently working on a collection of essays about coming of age in the suburbs, discovering punk rock and being boy crazy.

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

More: Check out all of our Narratively Academy online writing classes here.

Read more

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Yes, we’re talking about and her recent Modern Love — about meeting her current boyfriend through her best friend, brief lover and, ahem, the subject of her first ML — you can read here if you haven’t already.

And if you want to read the piece she wrote for us — exploring similar themes and people! — you can head here for that.

With her piece top of mind, we wanted to re-share our interview with her in which she talks all about her first Modern Love journey. Watch above to find out Elizabeth’s tricks to submitting, what the whole process was like and more.

Open Book recordings are usually for paying subscribers, but we’re making this one free for a limited time so everyone can check it out. If you feel inclined to become a paying subscriber to support all the independent content we create — and that we’ve been creating since 2013! — we would so greatly appreciate it. Thank you for considering! 🙏❤️🥳

Subscribe now

In this three-part class, author will lead students to examine the ways that other top nonfiction writers structure their work in both conventional and unconventional ways. Sometimes, with the right scaffolding, a piece becomes easier to write, revise, and understand.

Students will come to the first session having read a few contemporary essays, and together, we will examine the structure of those essays as well as other classic nonfiction texts. You will learn unconventional structures, including those explored in Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode, and how the structure adds to the piece as a whole.

In the second session, you will consider the story you are trying to tell, figure out your current structure, and begin a practice exercise for revising a work of shorter or longer nonfiction to understand improvements to your structure.

The third session is a 20-minute one-on-one with the instructor to discuss specific questions and challenges you are facing and work through your structure.

This is a small class with just 10 seats, and every student will have a chance to discuss their own project and get feedback. As of right now there are just three seats left.

Sign Up

Cost: $275

Class Size Limit: 10

Paid subscribers to Narratively Academy get 20% off all classes, including this one. If you already are a paid subscriber, scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the paid subscriber promo code. Or click here to become a paid subscriber today.

This class is right for you if…

• You’ve been working on a shorter or longer piece of nonfiction or memoir and are struggling with structure.

• You’ve published nonfiction writing and want to explore more unconventional forms and shapes in your writing .

• You’re working on a longer piece and feel you need to organize it in a more compelling manner.

Sign Up

The first two sessions of this class take place on Monday, July 6 and Monday, July 13 at 7pm ET. The third session will be a one-on-one meeting for 20 minutes, scheduled on Monday, July 20.

All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and are accessible to students anywhere in the world. This class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students, but live attendance and participation is strongly encouraged.

Instructor Bio: Kristina R. Gaddy is the author of Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History and Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis. Her essay in Narratively about Jewish teenagers before WWII won the American Society of Journalists and Authors 2022 Best Reported Essay. Her essay “Intersection Landscapes” appears in the anthology A Harp in the Stars (Nebraska 2021) and her personal writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Museum of Americana and Fearsome Critters. She is one of the editors of true, a literary journal that explores the craft of nonfiction. She lives in Baltimore and has taught writing locally and presented about nonfiction craft at national writing conferences.

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

More: Check out all of our Narratively Academy online writing classes here.

Read more

PS: For all of you structure obsessives, next week at Narratively Academy, is teaching another edition of one of our most popular classes, Advanced Craft Workshop: Finding Your Structure.

A design professor from Denmark once drew for me a picture of the creative process, which had been the subject of his doctoral dissertation. “Here,” he said. “This is what it looks like”:

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Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnes’ popular “30 Days, 30 Essay Prompts” class has given hundreds of writers a full month of inspiration and generative ideas. Now her new month-long course, “31 Days, 31 Revision Prompts: A Month of Self-Editing Your Essays,” uses a similar format to guide you in self-editing and polishing your drafts, whether you wrote them last week or years ago.

This self-guided course is designed to help you tighten, strengthen, expand and contract your own essays or memoir. The course will help you add depth and background, make your narration shine, be more active with your word choices — in short, take what you’ve already written and prepare it for potential publication.

Learn More + Sign Up