Nonfiction Book Writing

WHEN 12 weeks, November 16 - February 8 Online chats: Mondays, 9-10 pm EST WHERE Online. Click here for details. LEVEL Intermediate PRICE $610 ($575 for ) more info Add to Calendar iCal | Outlook

Course Details

Even experienced writers can balk at having to fill hundreds of pages with tens of thousands of words. In this class, you will learn how to manage the tricky process of writing a nonfiction book from an instructor who has overseen the development of nonfiction titles of all kinds, including memoir, narrative journalism, self-help, social and political issue, business, and narrative nonfiction.

By the end of this class, you will have:
A working draft (75-100 pages), a full chapter outline, and a plan for the completion of your book.

Students who have taken this class have published:
The Creative Girl's Guide To Having It All: How to Brave the Odds and Make Your Way in a Creative Career (Perseus/Running Press), Something New: Wedding Etiquette for Rule Breakers, Traditionalists, and Everyone In Between (Simon Spotlight), and Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams (Ballantine), and Read My Hips (Harmony)

Admission requirements:
Please submit a letter of interest (including a brief work history), and a writing sample (less than 2,000 words).

The online classroom has several interactive components:

• Instructors post lectures once a week. You can read them online, print them, or download them at your convenience.
• Students post completed assignments for feedback and discussion by the instructor and class.
• Weekly chats allow your class to get together via instant message. Transcripts are available for review if you can't attend.
• Technical support is available from mediabistro staff.
  

Course Syllabus

Nonfiction Book Writing (PDF) View a sample syllabus for this class here.

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Instructor Bio

Ashley Shelby's Courses

Ashley Shelby is the author of Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City. Her journalism, essays, op-eds, and fiction have been widely published and anthologized. Ashley spent several years as an associate editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc., where she specialized in political and social issue nonfiction, memoir, and narrative journalism. While at Penguin, she acquired and edited The United States of Wal-Mart by John Dicker, Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin, Buddha's Warriors by Mikel Dunham, Now Write by Sherry Ellis, and Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession by Don Kulick and Anne Meneley.

Prior to that, Ashley was a literary associate at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. She received an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from Columbia University and was awarded the William Faulkner Short Fiction Award in 2002 and the 2009 Third Coast Fiction Prize. Ashley founded the KGB Bar Nonfiction Reading Series in New York and is currently director of Mill City Writers' Workshop.