Creating the Truth:
A Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Writing Workshop in New Jersey
January 15-18, 2027
Led by Dionne Ford

How do we take a real life or world event and transform it into an essay? In this supportive writing workshop, we will capture what we are most compelled to write about and what gives it meaning – our singular perspective. Excerpts from classic and contemporary writers including Saidiya Hartman, Isabel Wilkerson, and Maud Newton will guide our discussions and introduce creative nonfiction tools such as interviewing, site visits, and molding research into narrative. We will also go through a series of exercises to activate voice, the senses and scene building, followed by sharing our work and gentle feedback. Bring your work-in-progress or something that’s brand new. All experience levels are welcome.

*Limited to just 10 participants.* 

“I came into the getaway not knowing what to expect and left counting down the days until I could come back. It was easy to take risks and attempt something new with such a wonderful community of writers who all expressed such support and encouragement. It was something that I did not realize I was missing in my life until I experienced it. Thank you!”
~ Trista, Toms River, NJ

 

NEA creative writing fellow Dionne Ford is the author of the memoir Go Back and Get It, a 2024 finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and an NPR book of the day.  Her work has won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Newswomen’s Club of NY and the New Jersey State Council of the Arts and has appeared in The New York Times, The Virginia Quarterly Review, LitHub, The Boston Globe, and Ebony among other publications. She co-edited the anthology Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation and served on the NJ Reparations Council. She holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU and teaches creative writing at Fordham University and Drew University. Read a piece by Dionne and learn more on her website.