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Roots. Wounds. Words. Inc.
3d Space by RWW
Writers' Retreat
2025 Winter Writers' Retreat
2025 Faculty—Winter
2024 Fellows—Autumn
2024 Faculty—Autumn
2024 Fellows—Winter
2024 Faculty—Winter
2023 Fellows
2023 Faculty
2022 Fellows
2022 Faculty
Workshops
Publications
Our Anthologies
The Rumpus
Raising Mothers
Programs
Words of Resistance
Overview
Masters of Craft Talks
Writing Workshops
Penning My Pieces
COUNTERpult
RWW On The Outside
Get Involved
Support
Volunteer
Join RWW
Partners & Sponsors
Contact Us
Our Story
Testimonials
Our History
Leadership Team
Board of Directors
3d Space by RWW
Folder: Writers' Retreat
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2025 Winter Writers' Retreat
2025 Faculty—Winter
2024 Fellows—Autumn
2024 Faculty—Autumn
2024 Fellows—Winter
2024 Faculty—Winter
2023 Fellows
2023 Faculty
2022 Fellows
2022 Faculty
Workshops
Folder: Publications
Back
Our Anthologies
The Rumpus
Raising Mothers
Folder: Programs
Back
Words of Resistance
Overview
Masters of Craft Talks
Writing Workshops
Penning My Pieces
COUNTERpult
RWW On The Outside
Folder: Get Involved
Back
Support
Volunteer
Join RWW
Partners & Sponsors
Contact Us
Folder: Our Story
Back
Testimonials
Our History
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Board of Directors
Workshops Trying Shells on For Size: Exploring the Hermit Crab Essay Led by D. Nolan Jefferson
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Trying Shells on For Size: Exploring the Hermit Crab Essay Led by D. Nolan Jefferson

$100.00
sold out

Saturday, November 13th & 20th | 12 AM ET - 3:00 PM ET

Tuition | $100.00

Capacity: 12 Storytellers

The hermit crab essay is a special kind of creative lyric essay in which the form—the shell—can take on many forms: A recipe, a crossword puzzle, GPS directions, eyewitness accounts, a police report. In these highly creative essays, the form dictates the structure of the narrative on behalf of the writer. One can use this style as a kind of scaffolding for the essay, a framework with which to work within, or they can go hard in the paint, utilizing and inhabiting the shell of the crab to the extreme. In Trying Shells on For Size, a 2-day workshop, we’ll explore these found forms and push past the traditional essay, finding ways to encapsulate our personal lived experiences.

About the Faculty: D. Nolan Jefferson is an academic librarian and writer based in Washington, D.C. His prose appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Orca Literary, SFWP Quarterly, Hobart Pulp, TriQuarterly, the anthology Fat and Queer, and a finalist for contests at Indiana Review. He is an AWP Intro Journal Project Award winner, a Kimblio Fiction fellow, and a Lambda Literary fellow, holding degrees from San Diego State University, Art Center College of Design, and Louisiana State University. He enjoys tacos, collecting records, and fellow introverts. He tweets @geekandahalf.

Like all RWW offerings, this space is for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, Asian, and other Storytellers of Color only. BIPOC Storytellers are centered here, exclusively.

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Saturday, November 13th & 20th | 12 AM ET - 3:00 PM ET

Tuition | $100.00

Capacity: 12 Storytellers

The hermit crab essay is a special kind of creative lyric essay in which the form—the shell—can take on many forms: A recipe, a crossword puzzle, GPS directions, eyewitness accounts, a police report. In these highly creative essays, the form dictates the structure of the narrative on behalf of the writer. One can use this style as a kind of scaffolding for the essay, a framework with which to work within, or they can go hard in the paint, utilizing and inhabiting the shell of the crab to the extreme. In Trying Shells on For Size, a 2-day workshop, we’ll explore these found forms and push past the traditional essay, finding ways to encapsulate our personal lived experiences.

About the Faculty: D. Nolan Jefferson is an academic librarian and writer based in Washington, D.C. His prose appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Orca Literary, SFWP Quarterly, Hobart Pulp, TriQuarterly, the anthology Fat and Queer, and a finalist for contests at Indiana Review. He is an AWP Intro Journal Project Award winner, a Kimblio Fiction fellow, and a Lambda Literary fellow, holding degrees from San Diego State University, Art Center College of Design, and Louisiana State University. He enjoys tacos, collecting records, and fellow introverts. He tweets @geekandahalf.

Like all RWW offerings, this space is for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, Asian, and other Storytellers of Color only. BIPOC Storytellers are centered here, exclusively.

Saturday, November 13th & 20th | 12 AM ET - 3:00 PM ET

Tuition | $100.00

Capacity: 12 Storytellers

The hermit crab essay is a special kind of creative lyric essay in which the form—the shell—can take on many forms: A recipe, a crossword puzzle, GPS directions, eyewitness accounts, a police report. In these highly creative essays, the form dictates the structure of the narrative on behalf of the writer. One can use this style as a kind of scaffolding for the essay, a framework with which to work within, or they can go hard in the paint, utilizing and inhabiting the shell of the crab to the extreme. In Trying Shells on For Size, a 2-day workshop, we’ll explore these found forms and push past the traditional essay, finding ways to encapsulate our personal lived experiences.

About the Faculty: D. Nolan Jefferson is an academic librarian and writer based in Washington, D.C. His prose appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Orca Literary, SFWP Quarterly, Hobart Pulp, TriQuarterly, the anthology Fat and Queer, and a finalist for contests at Indiana Review. He is an AWP Intro Journal Project Award winner, a Kimblio Fiction fellow, and a Lambda Literary fellow, holding degrees from San Diego State University, Art Center College of Design, and Louisiana State University. He enjoys tacos, collecting records, and fellow introverts. He tweets @geekandahalf.

Like all RWW offerings, this space is for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, Asian, and other Storytellers of Color only. BIPOC Storytellers are centered here, exclusively.

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Roots. Wounds. Words. Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported by storytellers of color, individual stakeholders, and institutional partners including Amazon Literary Partnership, Astrea Lesbian Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Carnegie Hall, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, Kitchen Table Arts, and more. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.

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