Writing Workshops

I and You and Who: The Second Person and Creative Nonfiction with Alissa Wilkinson

$175

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 12:00 pm EDT - 3:00 pm EDT April 12 to April 13, 2025

The Center for Fiction

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The lion’s share of creative nonfiction writing is in some form of the first person: I’m telling you a story, I’m exploring my experience. But what happens when we write nonfiction in the second person? How does that change how the reader experiences the narrative, and what does the second person teach us about the very meaning of nonfiction?

In this workshop, we’ll look at some examples of second-person creative nonfiction from writers like Mary Karr, Paul Auster, Mark Richard, and others, explore what the second person teaches us, and practice writing and rewriting to see how we can use the second person to be stronger nonfiction writers—no matter the final form of our work. Workshop participants should complete readings prior to the first day, prepare a brief (~600-word) first-person narrative about an experience of any kind, and plan to spend a little time rewriting between class sessions.

Course Outline:

Day 1: Discuss the second person in our readings, as well as how the second person works in nonfiction specifically. Writing exercises and more discussion.
Overnight Assignment: Rewrite a short first-person piece into the second person. Observe the experience.
Day 2: Discuss observations, workshop the results, and consider what we’ve learned about the broader ethical and moral implications of nonfiction through this experience.

Led by

Alissa Wilkinson

Alissa Wilkinson

Alissa Wilkinson is a movie critic at the New York Times. Her book We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine, a cultural history of American myth-making in Hollywood through the life and work of Joan Didion, will be published by Liveright on March 11, 2025. She presently teaches graduate creative nonfiction in NYU’s XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement program. Alissa has been writing criticism since 2005, and her work has appeared in Vox, the NYT Book Review, Vulture, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Review of Books, RogerEbert.com, Books & Culture, and many more. Her previous book, Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking and Living from Revolutionary Women, was published by Broadleaf in 2022. She earned an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction writing from Seattle Pacific University and an M.A. in humanities and social thought from New York University.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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