Bich Minh Nguyen

About:

In this workshop you will be encouraged to explore the many possibilities of the personal essay, which incorporates elements of memoir, along with meditation, discursiveness and observation. In particular we will concentrate on subject and form, reading each other’s work carefully for the ideas that are beginning to emerge. After pinpointing a subject or series of linked ideas we will talk about how best to reshape the essay so the form and content mesh and the essay coheres. For those workshop participants interested in or already underway with a longer manuscript, we can also go over strategies for combining essays into a book length work. As with any creative nonfiction workshop we will focus our discussion on the broader elements of the genre as well, such as narrative technique, voice, language, and structure. We will talk about the role of the “I,” what lifts a personal essay from the pitfall of self-absorption, and how to shape our thoughts and personal experiences into meaningful prose.

Requirements:

Applicants may submit a writing sample of no more than 10 pages at the time of application.

Biography:

Bich Minh Nguyen (first name pronounced "Bit") is the author of the memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner, which received the PEN/Jerard Award and was a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2007, a Book Sense pick, and a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book. She received an MFA from the University of Michigan and currently teaches at Purdue University. With her husband (and fellow workshop leader) Porter Shreve she is coeditor of three textbooks, including Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: I & Eye. Her work has also appeared or been featured in Gourmet magazine; the Chicago Tribune; Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing up in America; NPR's "All Things Considered;" and PBS's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." In summer 2009 Viking Penguin will publish her novel Short Girls.