Making Good Trouble with the Lyric Essay
Freedom, innovation, and hybridity define the lyric essay – these words also evoke America. Let’s explore our American stories together in a generative class that embraces the mosaic of the lyric form; we will write together, telling our own stories, perhaps others’ stories, and even collaborate on some of our essays. This will be a playful class where we expand our expectations of the “personal essay” and find what can bloom in that freedom.
Perrin Kerns served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University for 15 years. She currently teaches writing at Portland State University. In addition, she teaches the lyric essay at Literary Arts and Fishtrap Writers Conference. Her own creative work has taken her from lyric essays to digital storytelling to making personal narrative documentaries based on her lyric essays. Her film Between Sasquatch and Superman: Living with Down Syndrome won the Director’s Choice Award at the San Francisco International Shorts Festival, and her short animated film on her miscarriage won the best short animation at the Oregon Independent Film Festival.
