Writing the Mundane

Tuesdays: April 7-28
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

Led by HEATHER RADKE
with guest authors Ross Gay, Leslie Jamison, Elissa Gabbert, & Aimee Nezhukumatathil

$450 ($400 until Feb 9)

Nonfiction so often gravitates toward the loudest, most dramatic moments in life: illness, trauma, transformation. But what about the small, glimmering ones? Trying to coax a child to sleep, buying candy at the corner store, the way light falls across a kitchen table. These daily, seemingly insignificant experiences can hold surprising aesthetic and political power. To write the mundane is to look again at what usually escapes notice, and to find meaning in the ordinary.

In this four-session seminar led by acclaimed journalist and author Heather Radke, we’ll examine the works of writers who have turned their gaze toward the everyday—from Montaigne on thumbs to Agnes Varda on potatoes—and we’ll experiment with writing techniques that make the small poignant, resonant, even thrilling. Each week will include a craft discussion, a generative exercise, and conversation with a guest author who will speak to the politics, craft, and aesthetic opportunities of writing about the mundane. You’ll practice habits of attention and curiosity, and leave with new approaches for transforming the overlooked and the ordinary into art.

This course is not a workshop—there’s no feedback component—but you’ll generate plenty of new material through customized, experiential prompts and weekly assignments. Together, we’ll ask: What can the small reveal about the large? How might writing about the mundane help us rethink the boundaries of the personal and the political, the trivial and the profound? And how might paying attention to the most ordinary moments in life help us all write about the most extraordinary parts of living?

In this course, students can expect to:

• Gain a toolkit for noticing and writing the everyday 

• Understand how the ordinary is central to the history and practice of nonfiction

• Practice strategies for connecting the big to the small, and using the small to tell big stories 

• Explore approaches to transforming the overlooked and ordinary into work that is meaningful and resonant with many audiences

• Consider the political implications and possibilities of writing about the ordinary

• Learn directly from writers who bring the mundane to life with exceptional power

• Generate new writing while advancing your work-in-progress

About the Instructors

Details

This course will take place on Zoom on Tuesdays from April 7 - April 28 from 7 - 9:30 p.m. EST. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterward.

After you take a course with Off Assignment, you’ll be invited into our private writing community for alumni on Slack. It includes channels for publication opportunities, reading recommendations, meet-ups, and more—not to mention literary companionship that outlasts the course itself.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

Please email courses@offassignment.com with any questions.

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Financial Aid

The full price for this course is $450, with early bird pricing at $400 available until February 9. Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay.

A limited number of scholarships for this course are available. Please fill out this form by February 16, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline. (Please hold off on registering until you have received a scholarship decision.)

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.