8-week Master Personal Essay & Memoir – begins 6.17.26 – Dumbo
Instructor: Amy Shearn
Dates: begins June 17, 2026 | meets once a week | Wed* 7-9pm
*class will not meet the wk of July 1
Location: Dumbo – 45 Main Street
Fee: $1150 | $1050 for returning writers
A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a 3-5 page sample.
Our Master Personal Essay & Memoir Workshop is a selective class aimed at writers looking to polish their work for publication. Class is taught by our most experienced nonfiction instructor whose students have gone on to attend top MFA programs, win prestigious awards and publish with both commercial and independent presses. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work and typed feedback from the instructor is included, as well as a private conference.
Writers should have extensive writing and writing class/workshop experience.
A private conference with the instructor is included.
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Animal Instinct, Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She teaches creative writing at the Yale Writers' Workshop, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, and Writing Co-Lab, an experimental cooperative she co-founded. Amy's nonfiction writing has appeared in many publications including The New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, and O: The Oprah Magazine. Amy lives in Brooklyn and, alongside her own writing, she works with writers as a developmental editor, book coach, and retreat-leader.