Since lyric essays are typically longer and more free verse than poems, they can be a way to address a larger idea or broader time period. Her essay “Some Sort of Union,” published in Hippocampus Magazine, was a finalist in the magazine’s Best Creative Nonfiction contest. Nina Boutsikaris is the author of I’m Trying to Tell You I’m Sorry: An Intimacy Triptych, and her work has also appeared in an anthology of the best flash nonfiction. Travel through time, like Nina Boutsikaris in “ Some Sort of Union.” This unexpected visual approach feels reminiscent of an article or quiz-both popular nonfiction forms-and adds dimension and white space to the lyric essay.ģ. orthodontist ( can straighter teeth really make me pregnant ?) Though Bar-Nadav’s writing throughout this piece showcases rhythmic anaphora-a definite poetic skill-it also plays with nonfiction forms not typically seen in poetry, including bullet points and a multiple-choice list.įor example, when recounting unsolicited advice from others, Bar-Nadav presents their dialogue in the following way:Į. Hadara Bar-Nadav illustrates this experimental nature in Selections from Babyland, a multi-part lyric essay that delves into experiences with infertility. Lyric essays blend poetic qualities and nonfiction qualities. Experiment with nonfiction forms, like Hadara Bar-Nadav in “ Selections from Babyland. “You’ll likely find me crying by the banchan refrigerators, remembering the taste of my mom’s soy-sauce eggs and cold radish soup,” Zauner writes, illuminating the deeply personal and mystifying experience of grieving through direct, sensory imagery.Ģ. Throughout the work, Zauner establishes a parallel between her and her mother’s relationship and traditional Korean food. It opens with the fascinating and emotional sentence, “Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.” This first line not only immediately propels the reader into Zauner’s grief, but it also reveals an example of the popular “braided essay” technique, which weaves together two distinct but somehow related experiences. īefore Crying in H Mart became a bestselling memoir, Michelle Zauner-a writer and frontwoman of the band Japanese Breakfast-published an essay of the same name in The New Yorker. Draft a “braided essay,” like Michelle Zauner in this excerpt from Crying in H Mart. These four examples provide an introduction to the writing style, as well as spotlight tips for creating your own.ġ.
Oftentimes, it emerges as a way to explore a big-picture idea with both imagery and rigor. Put simply, the lyric essay is a hybrid, creative nonfiction form that combines the rich figurative language of poetry with the longer-form analysis and narrative of essay or memoir. This shines through especially in lyric essays, a form that has inspired articles from the Poetry Foundation and Purdue Writing Lab, as well as become the concept for a 2015 anthology titled We Might as Well Call it the Lyric Essay. Whether getting inspiration from fiction proves effective in building characters or song-writing provides a musical tone, poetry intersects with a broader literary landscape. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.Poets can learn a lot from blurring genres. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twentiesincluding the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young lifeand brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined," Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe." I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble.
"I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.