Sign up for the next Historical Narratives nonfiction writing class, Sept. 18-Nov. 19, 2023 (below)
Historical Narratives, a 10-week nonfiction writing class by widely published, award-winning writer Marty Levine, has been offered for 10 years through the Creative Nonfiction Foundation.
Join the now-independent class: The same vital lessons on the art and craft of turning historical research into nonfiction stories — at half the previous price (now $240).
For a detailed class description and cost
click on
“10-week syllabus”
at top right of page
Practice your writing, develop nonfiction scenes, characters and dialog, and receive detailed critiques
Unsolicited Student Testimonials
Student Success
BOOKS (parts of which were workshopped in a previous class):
By Nick Pappas: Coming October 1, 2023 from University of New Mexico Press: Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters: https://www.amazon.com/Crosses-Iron-Tragic-Dawson-Disasters/dp/0826365280#:~:text=In%20October%201913%2C%20261%20miners,is%20a%20deserted%20ghost%20town
By Wynne Brown: The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art: https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Botanist-Plummer-Lemmons-Science/dp/1496222814
By Marilyn L. Geary: Miners, Milkers & Merchants: From the Swiss-Italian Alps to the Golden Hills of Australia and California: https://www.amazon.com/Miners-Milkers-Merchants-Swiss-Italian-California/dp/0982537808/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2ITPGK4HJUY1V&keywords=Milkers&qid=1688089699&s=books&sprefix=milkers+%2Cstripbooks%2C82&sr=1-7
By Amy McVay Abbott: Centennial Farm Family: Cultivating Land and Community, 1837 to 1937: https://www.amazon.com/Centennial-Farm-Family-Cultivating-Community/dp/B095Q9PLNV/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=bjTuR&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=146-8166041-5890733&pd_rd_wg=EKgCr&pd_rd_r=98872b97-7b32-4c74-b6e4-2af28c6731f6&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
By Jonathan Malesic: The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520344075/ (workshopped chapter in Commonweal: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/taming-demon)
ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
By Andrea Eschen: “Facing Death in My Mother’s Closet” in Months to Years: https://www.monthstoyears.org/facing-death-in-my-mothers-closet/ and “Imprinted: From the Crib and Beyond (Growing Pains Book 3)”: https://www.amazon.com/Imprinted-Crib-Beyond-Growing-Pains-ebook/dp/B08KTTPVSW?ref_=ast_author_mpb
"It was your class that inspired me to take the material seriously as a book project.” — Robin Flinchum
"Thank you for the invaluable insights and suggestions on my drafts. I feel I've turned a corner in understanding how to more effectively work with my materials, organization, and creating a compelling historical narrative. I feel closer than ever to creating a multi-layered work that does justice to the story and all that it entails.” — Judith Altruda
“You offer a unique service bringing years of skills and experience that I don't think we eager students are going to find elsewhere.” — Andrea Eschen
“I'm struck by how well you articulate what you want me to understand so that the reader can enter and remain within the narrative. I'm reveling in the learning, both about writing generally and about how to write this particular story. And, quite thrillingly, through this work of refining I keep deepening my understanding of what happened, what it must have felt like, why I care about sharing it. What an amazing thing it is to write and to be in conversation with such a gifted responder and guide.” — Cathy Miles Grant
"You are the best thing that has happened to this project since I finished writing it. It’s hard for me to meet your standard of clarity — that’s what I need to reach people with this story." — Merilee Karr
Join my email list for updates on classes — just email me at MLL2525@YAHOO.COM
About
Marty Levine:
My journalism and creative nonfiction have appeared in Time, Salon and throughout Pennsylvania and the U.S. I was the news editor of two alt-weeklies across a dozen years, and have won more than three dozen awards for my long-form journalism, spot reporting and columns from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and elsewhere. My fiction has appeared in and won awards from the Louisville Review, River City, the Mississippi Review, and New Letters, and was part of the anthology The Luxury of Tears. I received my MFA from the University of Pittsburgh.
