Phillip is the author of over a dozen books: 

• 4 personal essay collections (Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, Portrait of My Body, and Portrait Inside my Head), as well as Being with Children, Waterfront, and Notes on Sontag
• 3 works of fiction (Confessions of Summer, The Rug Merchant, and Two Marriages)
• 3 poetry collections (The Eyes Don’t Always Want to Stay Open, The Daily Round, and At the End of the Day).  

He has also edited several anthologies, including one of my personal favorites—Art of the Personal Essay—and he’s the author of To Show and To Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction. 

He is a professor in Columbia University’s MFA Writing Program, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

In this episode Phillip Lopate and I discuss:

• Why you need to have some things you haven’t worked out when you begin to write an essay.
• The ground rules, selection process, and organizational structure for his three volume anthology.
• What qualities make for a great essay, what can kill a piece, and the role the past plays.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Phillip Lopate

Phillip Lopate is the author of over a dozen books: 4 personal essay collections (Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, Portrait of My Body, and Portrait Inside my Head), as  well as Being with Children, Waterfront, and Notes on Sontag; three works of fiction (Confessions of Summer, The Rug Merchant, and Two Marriages), 3 poetry collections (The Eyes Don’t Always Want to Stay Open, The Daily Round, and At the End of the Day). He has also edited several anthologies (Art of the Personal Essay, American Movie Critics, and Writing New York). He is a professor in Columbia University’s MFA Writing Program, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Glorious American Essay

A monumental, canon-defining anthology of three centuries of American essays, from Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin to David Foster Wallace and Zadie Smith.

The essay form is an especially democratic one, and many of the essays Phillip Lopate has gathered here address themselves–sometimes critically–to American values. Even in those that don’t, one can detect a subtext about being American.

The Founding Fathers and early American writers self-consciously struggle to establish a recognizable national culture. The shining stars of the mid-nineteenth-century American Renaissance no longer lack confidence but face new reckonings with the oppression of blacks and women. The New World tradition of nature writing runs from Audubon, Thoreau, and John Muir to Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard. Marginalized groups in all periods use the essay to assert or to complicate notions of identity.

Lopate has cast his net intentionally wide, embracing critical, personal, political, philosophical, humorous, literary, polemical, and autobiographical essays, and making room for sermons, letters, speeches, and columns dealing with a wide variety of subjects. Americans by birth as well as immigrants appear here, famous essayists alongside writers more celebrated for fiction or poetry. The result is an extensive overview of the endless riches of the American essay.

The Golden Age of the American Essay: 1945-1970

A one-of-a-kind anthology of American essays on a wide range of subjects by a dazzling array of mid-century writers at the top of their form.

The three decades that followed World War II were an exceptionally fertile period for American essays. The explosion of journals and magazines, the rise of public intellectuals, and breakthroughs in the arts inspired a flowering of literary culture. At the same time, the many problems that confronted mid-century America–racism, sexism, nuclear threat, war, poverty, and environmental degradation among them–proved fruitful topics for America’s best minds. In The Golden Age of the American Essay, Phillip Lopate assembles a dazzling array of famous writers, critics, sociologists, theologians, historians, activists, theorists, humorists, poets, and novelists. Here are writers like James Agee, E. B. White, A. J. Liebling, Randall Jarrell, and Mary McCarthy, pivoting from the comic indignities of daily life to world peace, consumerism, and restaurants in Paris. Here is Norman Mailer on Jackie Kennedy, Vladimir Nabokov on Lolita, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style in American Politics. Here are Gore Vidal, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, John Updike, Joan Didion, and many more, in a treasury of brilliant writing that has stood the test of time.

The Contemporary American Essay

A dazzling anthology of essays by some of the best writers of the past quarter century–from Barry Lopez and Margo Jefferson to David Sedaris and Samantha Irby–selected by acclaimed essayist Phillip Lopate.

The first decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a blossoming of creative nonfiction. In this extraordinary collection, Phillip Lopate gathers essays by forty-seven of America’s best contemporary writers, mingling long-established eminences with newer voices and making room for a wide variety of perspectives and styles. The Contemporary American Essay is a monument to a remarkably adaptable form and a treat for anyone who loves fantastic writing.

Hilton Als • Nicholson Baker • Thomas Beller • Sven Birkerts • Eula Biss • Mary Cappello • Anne Carson • Terry Castle • Alexander Chee • Teju Cole • Bernard Cooper • Sloane Crosley • Charles D’Ambrosio • Meghan Daum • Brian Doyle • Geoff Dyer • Lina Ferreira • Lynn Freed • Rivka Galchen • Ross Gay • Louise Glück • Emily Fox Gordon • Patricia Hampl • Aleksandar Hemon • Samantha Irby • Leslie Jamison • Margo Jefferson • Laura Kipnis • David Lazar • Yiyun Li • Phillip Lopate • Barry Lopez • Thomas Lynch • John McPhee • Ander Monson • Eileen Myles • Maggie Nelson • Meghan O’Gieblyn • Joyce Carol Oates • Darryl Pinckney • Lia Purpura • Karen Russell • David Sedaris • Shifra Sharlin • David Shields • Floyd Skloot • Rebecca Solnit • Clifford Thompson • Wesley Yang

If you decide to check out the books, we hope you’ll do so via these Amazon affiliate links: The Glorious American Essay, The Golden Age of the American Essay: 1945-1970 and The Contemporary American Essay where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 377

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 377: The Art of the American Essay Anthology – Interview with Phillip Lopate appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Patrice Gopo on the show!

The daughter of Jamaican immigrants who was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Patrice is a personal essayist and often writes about topics of race, immigration, and belonging.

Her essays have appeared in numerous publications including Catapult and The New York Times. She also has had radio commentaries appear on her local public radio station, and is the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Literature Fellowship.

Her essay collection All the Colors We Will See was a Fall 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and is available now.

So listen in as Patrice and I chat about this amazing book, the personal essay form, and finding your own personal reason for why you write.

In this episode Patrice and I discuss:

• What elevates a personal anecdote to a personal essay.
• Techniques to find your go-to essay form.
• How to overcome the fear of putting your personal stories out in the world.
• Balancing the responsibility you have to others and to yourself.
• The importance of knowing who you are as a writer.

Plus, Patrice’s #1 tip for writers.

About Patrice Gopo

Patrice Gopo is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is a personal essayist and often writes about topics of race, immigration, and belonging.

Patrice’s essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Catapult, Creative Nonfiction, and online in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her radio commentaries have appeared on her local public radio station, WFAE 90.7. She is also the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Literature Fellowship, and her work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

Patrice also has a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and both a master of business administration and a master of public policy from the University of Michigan. While she is thankful she’s had the opportunity to study several different subjects, she’s also thrilled that engineering led to community development, which led to writing. Sometimes she wonders what might be next. Patrice lives with her family in North Carolina.

Her essay collection All the Colors We Will See, which was a Fall 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, is now available.

To connect with Patrice check out her website at www.patricegopo.com.

And don’t forget to check out that Visual Guide to Personal Essays Patrice talked about in the interview!

All the Colors We Will See

Patrice Gopo grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, the child of Jamaican immigrants who had little experience being black in America. In All the Colors We Will See, Patrice seamlessly moves across borders of space and time to create vivid portraits of how the reality of being different affects her quest to belong.

In this poetic and often courageous weaving of writings, Patrice examines the complexities of identity in our turbulent yet hopeful time of intersecting heritages. As she digs beneath the layers of immigration questions and race relations, Patrice also turns her voice to themes such as marriage and divorce, the societal beauty standards we hold, and the intricacies of living out our faith.

With an eloquence born of pain and longing, Patrice’s reflections invite us to consider our own journeys toward belonging, challenging us to wonder if the very differences dividing us might bring us together after all.

If you decide to check out Patrice’s essay collection—All the Colors We Will See—or the book she mentioned by Priscilla Long—The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life—we hope you’ll do so via these Amazon affiliate links, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 251

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 251: Finding Your Why — Interview with Patrice Gopo appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I am so excited to be talking with Will Dowd on the show!

Will Dowd is a writer and artist from the Boston area. He earned a BA from Boston College, an MS from MIT,and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.

His writing and art have appeared in many notable places, including LitHub and Tin House online. Will’s debut collection of essays, Areas of Fog, which takes readers on the whimsical and unpredictable journey of one year of New England weather, was released by Etruscan press in November 2017.

Listen in as we chat about this thought-provoking essay collection, and staying true to your voice even when the world tries to dampen it.

In this episode Will and I discuss:

• Finding the unique but universal concept for your writing to latch on to.
• Learning to turn down the volume of your inner critic.
• How the argumentative nature of the internet affects the personal essay.
• What techniques to use to craft an essay, with an example from Will.
• The importance of being compassionate with yourself as a writer.

Plus, Will’s #1 tip for writers.

About Will Dowd

Will Dowd is a writer and artist from the Boston area. He earned a BA from Boston College, as a Presidential Scholar; an MS from MIT, as a John Lyons Fellow; and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow. His writing and art have appeared in numerous places, including LitHub, Tin House online, Post Road Magazine, and NPR[dot]org. His debut collection of essays, Areas of Fog, was published by Etruscan Press, and is now available.

To connect with Will check out his website at www.willdowd.net.

Areas of Fog

Will Dowd takes us on a whimsical journey through one year of New England weather in this engaging collection of essays. As unpredictable as its subject, Areas of Fog combines wit and poetry with humor and erudition. A fun, breezy, and discursive read, it is an intellectual game that exposes the artificiality of genres, that in the author’s own words is, “a collection of lyric essays touching on literature, history and the vicissitudes of New England weather.”

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 198: Let’s Talk About the Weather — Will Dowd Discusses the Personal Essay appeared first on DIY MFA.

Being a Jill-of-All-Trades is an understatement, as I have to literally switch my thinking patterns and writing styles completely, often several times a day. Over the years, I’ve trained my brain to shift from being analytical to descriptive or, even, opinionated in a breeze.

If you’re a freelance writer like me, it would be beneficial to master several non-fiction writing types, so you can accept more clients and write for more publications. Here are the five types I’ve mastered, which I believe would be beneficial to all non-fiction writers.

1) Op-Ed

My first published article was an op-ed article. It’s an article written to voice an opinion that’s in opposition of the editorial, or to deliver a specific public message. It starts with a defined point and is written with clarity and strong voice. The Journalist Resource of Harvard Kennedy School covers this nicely.

2) Inverted Pyramid

This type of writing is mostly used for news writing, including in online publications that cover news. It primarily refers to a structure in which the most important and the heaviest information goes at the top of the story and the least important at the bottom. A good reference on writing inverted-pyramid news stories can be found here.

3) Personal Essay

Many top publications publish personal essays, so it’s something worth learning. While it’s “personal,” you’d need to focus on how the readers would perceive your personality based on the story. So, the focus is still the readers. Start with a strong hook, find an angle to show (not tell) the story, and conclude with a thought-provoking statement that readers can relate to. Grammarly has a good resource for writing personal essays.

4) Storytelling

When you’re working for a business client, most likely, you’d need to tell stories about the company, their products, or their customers. Success stories or case stories are today’s staple in increasing business or product value. It’s all about using the most suitable structure and wrapping a story around it. The Dummies Series has eleven strong story structures for business storytelling for you to start with.

5) Content Marketing

In this Internet era, writers should be familiar with content marketing writing, because almost every piece of writing you see online is some sort of “content marketing.” Why is it called “content marketing”? Because whatever your content is, it wouldn’t be read or, even, clicked without its “marketing element.” And without any traffic, there is no point in producing any piece of content or having an online presence or business. Here is a good source to answer what “content marketing” is.

Today’s freelance writers must equip themselves with several types of writing, so they can leverage their skills better by reaching more clients and audiences. You may, of course, specialize the topic or subject matter. However, you should be ready to deliver in various formats and structures.

Jennifer Xue is an award-winning author, columnist, digital strategist, and serial entrepreneur based in Northern California. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Business.com, Business2Community, Good Men Project, Addicted2Success, Positively Positive, and others. Her blog is JenniferXue.com. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post #5onFri: Five Types of Non-Fiction Freelancers Should Master appeared first on DIY MFA.