The personal essay is an ever morphing vehicle that has been used to explore the self, and through that self, the world. This form is durable enough to be about joy, about loss, about our parents, our addictions, and our loves. This writing workshop and conversation will explore the mechanics of what makes for a great personal essay by exploring a variety of different ways of representing the self and finding pathways into essay writing.

Andrew Bertaina is a professorial Lecturer in Creative Writing in the Literature department at American University in Washington, DC, where he teaches creative writing courses such as Fiction and Writers in Print. He is the author of the essay collection, The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place (Autofocus 2024), the book length essay, Ethan Hawke & Me (Barrelhouse, 2025), and the short-story collection, One Person Away From You (Moon City Press Award Winner 2021). His work has appeared in The ThreePenny Review, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Witness Magazine, and elsewhere. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry, The Best Microfiction, and listed as notable in three editions of The Best American Essays.