Ordinary Wonders: Crafting the Lyric Essay from Everyday Life

This course is devoted to noticing, recording, and transforming the small, human details of daily life into brief, luminous essays.

A flower growing from a sidewalk crack. A battered mailbox. A friendly nod from a stranger. These small sparks will become our raw material as we experiment with the elements of lyric essay—compression, association, voice, rhythm, and poetic language. This course welcomes playfulness: rabbit-hole footnotes, weird tangents, meandering sentences that somehow hold together, and logic that is felt as much as it is argued. We’ll explore how lyric essays move not in straight lines but in spirals and leaps, allowing surprise, humor, and emotional truth to coexist.

We’ll study Ross Gay’s very short, funny, thoughtful, sometimes rambling “essayettes” from The Book of Delights and The Book of (More) Delights, using his work as both companion and invitation: to pay closer attention, to follow curiosity, and to trust that even the most ordinary moment can open into something meaningful on the page.

Throughout the month, you’ll build a daily practice of writing a few sentences about what you find delightful, sharing these brief observations for accountability and inspiration. From this growing archive, you’ll choose several to develop more fully, drafting and revising two complete “delights” to share in small groups. You’ll receive peer and instructor feedback on one essay, participate in online discussions, and have opportunities to ask individual questions during live “ask me anything” video sessions. By the end of the course, you’ll leave with new work, a steadier habit of noticing, and a deeper understanding of how to shape attention into art.

Who This Course is For

This is a course for writers at any level who hope to focus more on small joys, lovely coincidences, and the unexpected gifts of the human experience. 

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals: 

• Attune your focus toward the delightful. 
• Understand how to make a brief essay out of a tiny moment in time. 
• Practice making connections between a delightful moment and other related events or memories.

Writing Goals: 

• Keep a daily log of delights. 
• Create two “essayettes” in Ross Gay’s style, just for fun. 
• Practice incorporating poetic elements into your sentences.
• Write and receive feedback on a new essay. 

Zoom Schedule

Delightful Zoom calls will take place Tuesday evenings from 7:00 – 8:00 PM Eastern, beginning March 3rd. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1 – Defining “delight” and finding tools to get started.

Choose from a list of writing prompts, low-key guided meditations, and journaling suggestions to create a 4-week plan for noticing small pleasures. Read 3 Delights by Ross Gay, learn the techniques he uses to infuse joy into his sentences. 

Week 2 – The joy of the tangent.

This week we’ll explore the organized chaos of Ross Gay’s “essayettes” and practice his techniques for taking your reader on tangents without losing them along the way. Read 3 Delights by Ross Gay, practice his techniques in a short guided writing assignment. Share something delightful with the class. 

Week 3 – The power of poetics.

This week we’ll explore different ways to make music as well as meaning. Read 3 Delights by Ross Gay, practice his techniques in a short guided writing assignment. Writing assignment: Choose one of your favorite delights to expand into a completed piece, using one published “delight” as your inspiration. Also, share something delightful with the class. 

Week 4 – The universal heart.

This week we’ll explore the universal emotion at the heart of these small essays. Why do we relate to experiences we’ve never had? How can you create the same empathy in the two pieces you’ll choose to develop further? Choose a second of your favorite delights to expand into a completed piece, using one published “delight” as your inspiration. Also, share something delightful with the class. 

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$345.00 Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.Enroll Now