Are you looking for ways to stay creative and connected over the summer?
Do you want to participate in a writing workshop that welcomes both beginning and experienced writers and has sparked multiple published essays?
Do you want to be part of a supportive writing community that continues long after the class is over?
In Summer 2022, I’ll be teaching the popular Writing about Family workshop at Yale for the fifth year in a row (!), in collaboration with writer, educator, and Writing about Family alum Minh Huynh Vu. Pandemic permitting, we’ll be meeting in person.
We’ll read work by writers including James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, Nicole Chung, Joan Didion, Mira Jacob, Kiese Laymon, Min Jin Lee, Claudia Rankine, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and others. Students will also have the opportunity to experiment with new creative writing techniques and to write and workshop two short essays. They will also have the opportunity to meet and talk with guest writers TBD. (Past years have featured visits from Carina del Valle Schorske, Vanessa Mártir, and Jodi Savage.)
You can sign up for English S256: Writing about Family here. It will meet twice a week in Summer Sesson B (July 4-August 5, 2022).
Anyone is welcome to sign up for Yale summer session courses—current college students at Yale or elsewhere, high school students looking to get a head start on college classes and/or a feel for Yale classes, and people with BA’s or beyond interested in continuing education. Feel free to email me at briallenhopper at gmail if you have any questions!
TESTIMONIALS FROM FORMER STUDENTS
“This class is so much more than a class about writing. It teaches empathy and a deep understanding of kinship ... Definitely one of the best classes I’ve ever taken in my life.”
“Taking this course ranks in [the] best experiences I’ve had at Yale. I wish every incoming student could have the chance to take it. This course is timely and crucial for young adults. The insight we gain about our own identities—sorting through the complex baggage and past that we each arrive with—is priceless. To do this in a setting of such diverse and supportive community, while also developing our skills as writers, is simply the best possible experience of a class. I hope this course continues, in semesters and summer programs, for years to come.”
“No other class I’ve taken has so effectively balanced content and craft. In each discussion, I emerged with concrete takeaways about how creative nonfiction works: structure, form, audience, research, public point, defamiliarization. But beyond the technical elements of textual analysis, our discussion of the themes of family was rich and deep. I had the sense we were collectively grappling, tackling topics of personal significance in ways that inspired real catharsis and growth in each of us.”
“I learned to think critically about creative writing and what the ethics of writing about family and friends are. I have never been challenged to explore my thoughts and feelings in such an academic and thoughtful way and cannot speak more highly of the takeaways from this course. I learned so much about myself, my experiences, and learned to write these thoughts down in a powerful and accessible way.”
“I thought a huge strength of the course was the way in which Professor Hopper seamlessly integrated material from each week into active discussions about important debates in the field of writing about family. A few of my favorite weeks included conversations on race, class, gender, and disability. The course discussed a range of relationships that moved outside of traditional narratives about family to question what constituted the idea of ‘family’ to begin with.”
“Honestly, this was the most well-crafted course I’ve ever taken. The strengths that stand out include: The excellent mix of genre, form, and voice in the syllabus. The workshop format and chance for constant feedback from peers. The way that the content of the readings—deep personal reflections—set a standard for sharing that allowed us to create an open and trusting environment. The strong and inclusive community feeling Dr. Hopper created in the course. The dual focus on themes of family and personal growth, while also paying attention to the craft of creative nonfiction. My only suggestion for improvement is to say that I wish this course went on longer than one semester!”