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Thinking on the Page: Nonfiction Seminar with Jack Hanson

$75.00


Single Day Workshop
Saturday, May 26th 2026 1-4PM

This course is designed to help you develop the most important aspect of creative nonfiction writing: the ability to draw your reader into your point of view and work through your subject in a way that creates an experience of discovery and insight - in short, the ability to think on the page. This extends beyond simple persuasion on the basis of clear presentation of facts and argument into the expansive world of literary sensibility and technique.

We will read some of the greatest essays of the past century, including some by James Baldwin, Elizabeth Hardwick, Christopher Hitchens, Janet Malcolm, and others, and try to understand what makes them affect us not only as arguments, but also as aesthetic experiences, changing our sense of the world and of ourselves. By the end of this course, you will understand how the nuts and bolts of literary technique like structure, rhythm, and syntax affect the overall impact of a piece, interacting with the content to produce an affect beyond mere persuasion. You’ll also have a deeper sense not only of what makes an effective and engaging argument, but also what keeps readers coming back to a piece of nonfiction even when the story has been told and the facts conveyed.


Single Day Workshop
Saturday, May 26th 2026 1-4PM

This course is designed to help you develop the most important aspect of creative nonfiction writing: the ability to draw your reader into your point of view and work through your subject in a way that creates an experience of discovery and insight - in short, the ability to think on the page. This extends beyond simple persuasion on the basis of clear presentation of facts and argument into the expansive world of literary sensibility and technique.

We will read some of the greatest essays of the past century, including some by James Baldwin, Elizabeth Hardwick, Christopher Hitchens, Janet Malcolm, and others, and try to understand what makes them affect us not only as arguments, but also as aesthetic experiences, changing our sense of the world and of ourselves. By the end of this course, you will understand how the nuts and bolts of literary technique like structure, rhythm, and syntax affect the overall impact of a piece, interacting with the content to produce an affect beyond mere persuasion. You’ll also have a deeper sense not only of what makes an effective and engaging argument, but also what keeps readers coming back to a piece of nonfiction even when the story has been told and the facts conveyed.

About Jack


Jack Hanson is a writer, editor, and scholar of religion. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Financial Times, The Nation, The Drift, and elsewhere. He is associate editor of The Yale Review and a lecturer at Yale. He lives in Brooklyn.

 

Scholarship

We are proud to offer a fully funded seat in each of our classes. To apply, send a cover letter and CV to info@littleniceworkshop.com and include the class you’d like to attend in the subject line.