Hope Edelman just emailed me about her latest project, the West Coast Writers Workshop. It's a collaboration with novelist Leslie Schwartz, and I know it will be amazing. I know this because Hope was my first mentor in the Antioch MFA program, and her teaching forever changed the way I think about structure and form. Every month, she sent these amazing critiques, breaking essays into their essential structural elements and charting the narrative arcs. She did more than help me revise. She planted the seeds for my own critical awareness, empowering me to continue our work long after the semester ended. I can't even tell you how many times I revise with her critiques in mind. What would Hope say about this arc? How would she break this down? Where can my exposition go deeper? Where should there be no exposition at all?
If you can get to Santa Monica, take her workshop. You will not be disappointed.