online via Zoom, first and third Saturdays of the month, July 19-December 6, 2025, 1-4pm EST
Writing an essay collection presents specific challenges: balancing the integrity of each individual piece with the cumulative effect of the whole; hewing to a core theme without getting repetitive; deciding whether a collection needs a narrative arc, and if it does, what separates it from a memoir? This five-month course will help writers navigate these considerations and more as they build toward a finished, polished manuscript that’s ready to send out to agents and editors.
Each writer will get two rounds of feedback on 30 pages per turn from the group (60 pages total). A mix of generative- and revision-focused exercises and assignments will help writers hone their essays both individually and as parts of a larger whole, with some generative time during class and some assignments to work on independently between sessions. Class size is limited to nine writers.
We’ll read and discuss four successful essay collections, and the authors of those collections will join us for Q&A sessions. (Collections and guest authors TBD based on the individual needs and interests of the selected cohort, but past guests have included Melissa Febos, Kiese Laymon, Esmé Weijun Wang, T Kira Madden, and CJ Hauser to give you a sense of the caliber of guests you can expect.)
In the last few sessions, we’ll turn our attention toward preparing for publication, working on query letters together and culminating in an agents and editors panel of industry professionals who will answer students' questions and demystify the various paths toward publication.
By the end of this five-month course, you can expect to have all or most of an essay collection written and revised, a solid query letter, and a plan for how to get your collection out into the world.
What you’ll get:
Two opportunities to workshop with the group (for feedback on 60 pages total)
Prompts and assignments to help you develop your individual essays and your collection as a whole
10 bi-monthly group meetings that each include some combination of workshop, prompts, generative work time, analysis/discussion of assigned readings, guest visits, check-in/discussion of students' progress and questions
Class visits with published authors of acclaimed essay collections, with opportunities to ask questions about their writing processes and publishing experiences
Class visits with industry professionals (agents and editors), with opportunities to ask questions about how to navigate the submissions process
Instruction and feedback to help you prepare the query letter you’ll need to get your collection published
Feedback on an additional 30 pages from the instructor
A one-on-one meeting with me upon completion of the course, to talk next steps and a game plan to polish and submit your essay collection for publication
What will be expected of you:
This is a small group workshop (capped at nine participants), which means the class will only function if everyone is committed and engaged. By joining the class, you will be committing to:
Showing up to every meeting
Being respectful and kind to your peers, our guests, and me
Reading and preparing detailed, thoughtful feedback on all workshop materials
Reading the guest authors’ books and coming prepared with questions (participants will be responsible for buying or borrowing guest authors' books)
Putting in the work to develop your project along the way so that you get the full benefits of the class!
"Lilly has an excellent eye for helping writers identify the important threads in their essays and gives wonderful recommendations on how to flesh them out. Before the Essay Collection Incubator, I felt lost in a pile of work, but now I have purpose and direction and a clear sense of what it's like to publish my collection in the current market. I've grown as a writer and as a businesswoman as a result of this class, and her detailed revision process aided me in getting an essay published in an upcoming anthology after over a year of not being able to publish anything. I highly recommend Lilly to any writer who's unsure of what to do next with their project!"
"The Essay Collection Incubator was instrumental in helping me to gain a clearer big-picture understanding of my project. Through the incredible author visits and assignments tailor-made for essay collections, I gained an invaluable perspective that has led me to me to the finish line of my manuscript."
"Lilly’s class was the ideal container to nurture the incubation of my essay collection. She brought in a thoughtfully curated selection of authors, agents, and editors to speak with about their published works and the publishing process. Our small group fostered an intimate feel that lent itself to effective workshopping and investment in each other’s work. The class was really excellent in providing the structure and tools I needed to drive my project forward. I feel less daunted by the prospect of putting my work into the world and inspired to keep pushing forward."
The line between an essay collection and a memoir can be fuzzy. While designed specifically for writers working on essay collections, this class is definitely open to people who are working in the in-between space of memoir-in-essays, and/or people who are not sure where their project falls on this spectrum. As long as you're comfortable treating the distinct smaller units of your book-length work as “essays,” this class will work for you—even if you consider the project as a whole to be a memoir rather than a collection. If you have any questions about whether your project is a fit, please flag that on your application and we can discuss.
This class is best suited for writers who have at least a few essays drafted (even if they’re messy), and at least a general sense of the themes/focus of their collection (even if it’s tentative).
Class will meet the first and third Saturdays of the month, July 19-December 6, 2025, from 1-4pm EST. Detailed schedule available below. All class meetings will be held online, via Zoom. Meetings will not be recorded; participants are expected to attend live.
Applications are due by June 4, with notifications going out by the end of June. See application details here.
The total cost is $2,500, with the option to pay in full upfront or in five monthly installments of $500. Class fees are nonrefundable.
7/5: Introductory email goes out ahead of the first meeting, including the first craft assignment: Writing a detailed outline of your collection.
7/19: First meeting: Introductions, getting to know everyone and their projects, and discussion of how the class will run. Craft discussion on working with outlines to see both the forest and the trees when drafting an essay collection, filling narrative and stylistic gaps. Generative writing time.
8/2: Book discussion and author visit. Workshop. Craft lecture and prompts: Variety in form and pushing outside of your comfort zone. Generative assignment to try a new-to-you essay form (with optional prompts to work from).
8/16: Workshop. Class discussion of the last two assignments, generative writing time to continue working on new essays.
9/6: Book discussion and author visit. Workshop. Craft lecture and exercises: Revising essays to work as both stand-alone pieces and parts of a larger whole. Revision assignment.
9/20: Workshop. Class discussion of revision assignment. Generative time to continue working on individual essay revisions.
10/4: Book discussion and author visit. Workshop. Craft discussion and exercise: Ordering an essay collection.
10/18: Workshop. Craft discussion and exercise: Dealing with recurring events, repetition vs. redundancy. Generative time.
11/1: Book discussion and author visit. Workshop. Discussion of query letters.
11/15: Workshop. Group brainstorming and feedback on comps and descriptive paragraphs for query letters.
12/6: Agents and editors panel. Workshop. Wrap-up discussion.
One-on-one meetings