Off Assignment

In our latest "Letter to a Stranger" essay by Emily Lowe, we learn to leave the trail and follow the tracks. It may be reckless, but the desire for an adventure, and the desire to be part of her father's epic tales at the campfire, drove Emily onwards.

Read the essay buff.ly/7DdNV0r

To My Siberian Hiking Companion — Off Assignment “It appeared most households on Olkhon Island, a crescent of land in Lake Baikal, had a dog, and that the pets were left to roam free. It made sense. How far could they — you — even go, surrounded as…

Not all strangers in the "Letter to a Stranger" archive are human! Like Emily Lowe's last week, Sebastian Modak's essay is to a Siberian dog who accompanied him on a lonesome hike to Lake Baikal while he was on assignment for the NY Times' 52 Places column.

Read it here:

Rethinking Travel Writing — Off Assignment A literary space for the candid tales behind official stories.

Travel writing is a beloved genre--and yet, historically, so much of it has gone awry.

Develop a new approach to travel with our "Rethinking Travel Writing" course, led by Faith Adiele—featuring Bani Amor, Pier Nirandara, Carey Baraka, & @noosarowiwa.bsky.social. Register:

This week, we're reading about how young womanhood, and its implications for marriage, has evolved in media; the lessons to be learned from fish while navigating queerness (@elizabethendicott.bsky.social); and a deep dive on a ubiquitous font in Manhattan (@aresluna.org): buff.ly/6tBGqM0

How to Write Autofiction — Off Assignment A literary space for the candid tales behind official stories.

Join our "How to Write Autofiction" course this fall to learn from incredible writers @aubereylescure.bsky.social, @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Laura van den Berg, Andrew Sean Greer, & Zinzi Clemmons.

Find out more and register here:

Take a look behind this week's "Letter to a Stranger" essay as writer Emily Lowe reflects on connecting with nature, bending the rules, and finding new ways to approach the bear that has haunted her stories over the years.

Read the full Q&A through the newsletter: buff.ly/6tBGqM0

We're thrilled to have incredible authors Steve Almond, @meghamaj.bsky.social, Anthony Doerr, Camille Dungy, and @sarahmanguso.bsky.social teaching our "Writing Desire" Masters' Series course this November. Bring your burning questions for this stellar group and register here: buff.ly/CUo4EhW

In this week's new essay, we meet a bear. We follow its paw prints through the woods, imagine it scarfing down berries, and, through it all, feel the wonder and trust of a daughter ready to follow her father anywhere.

Read this heartbreakingly tender essay by Emily Lowe: buff.ly/7DdNV0r

Improve Your Imagination — Off Assignment A literary space for the candid tales behind official stories.

Imagination is essential to creating new worlds, both on and off the page. Join "The Practice of Imagination" w Rachel Khong, Shruti Swamy, @rubenwrites.bsky.social, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, & Hilary Leichter this fall to develop a stronger imaginative practice to fuel your writing:

The Power of the Prompt By Colleen Kinder I’m one of those writing teachers who swears by prompts. Narrative directives like, “Write about a childhood memory, set in a car.” or “Begin every single sentence with ‘I remembe…

At OA, we’ll take a prompt over a blank page any day—all our columns invite writers to respond to a generative prompt!

Read OA co-founder Colleen Kinder ( @colleenkinder.bsky.social) in Brevity ( @dintywmoore.bsky.social) about their potential as creative springboards:

She's taught two OA courses and been a guest at another: Chloé Caldwell's pretty popular around here. So let's congratulate her on her new memoir! Mia Arias Tsang, a guest author at Chloé's most recent OA course, joins her on tour, and catch OA contributors Leslie Jamison & Michelle Tea in NYC & LA!

At Off Assignment, we think a lot about platforming writing outside the western-centric canon of travel literature. Join travel writers Faith Adiele, Pier Nirandara, Carey Baraka, Bani Amor, and @noosarowiwa.bsky.social to reimagine travel writing through these perspectives. buff.ly/OkswTkm

What does it mean to say goodbye: Is it a definitive act, a threshold? In her "Behind the Essay" interview, Holly Brickley looks back on how the farewell essay taught her the place she's writing about cannot truly be left.

Read the full interview in our newsletter: buff.ly/Ub9gkn4

Highly recommended read. I talked to Kat last year on my podcast, and we dug into her Fiona Apple connection:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTAN...

Per Leslie Jamison, reading @margosteines.bsky.social's writing is "journeying to the center of the earth, except the earth is a human body." Learn from Margo, @christinajcooke.bsky.social @porochista.bsky.social @sarahmanguso.bsky.social & Krys Malcom Belc in "Writing the Body." buff.ly/JOxfnwQ

Roadmap: Listening to Fiona Apple in Santa Maria — Off Assignment I buy this CD from the Kmart on Santa Maria Way with a friend the summer before 6th grade. We walk to the store via a shortcut behind the thoroughfare without her parents as chaperones. My family…

Last week's "Goodbye to That Place" essay by Holly Brickley had Donald Fagen lyrics suffusing a farewell to San Francisco, and it made us think of how Katrina Prow used Fiona Apple albums as roadmaps thru her California upbringing in this 2023 "Under the Influence."

Read along here: buff.ly/j8Uzc6k

This one's for all of you who have read picture books to kids and thought: I want to write one too! For dreamers, professionals, and all in between: join @kyomaclear.bsky.social, @dirtbagg.bsky.social, @matthewburgessj.bsky.social, X Fang, & @bottomshelfbks.bsky.social in September. buff.ly/lCHPVNT

This week, we're reading: an article on beavers' 50 years as Canada's national symbol by @brianbanks.bsky.social, a story about the haunting of a mill town by Rebecca Turkewitz, and an essay on shifting landscapes and disasters by Erica Berry.

These and more in our newsletter: buff.ly/nM5NgsI

OA editors @aubereylescure.bsky.social & Tusshara reunited in London! They talked about writing communities, what it means to travel back to same city again and again, and Aube’s preparation for her Masters' Series course “Writing Autofiction.” We love international reunions in our far-flung team! 🥰

Goodbye to an unleavable city San Francisco began, for me, with anticipation. Every summer when I was a child my family would drive there to visit my grandparents, a two-day trip that for my brother was hell, and for me was a…

In this week's "Behind the Essay" interview, Holly Brickley tells us her advice for weaving music into writing, what she learned about farewells while working on her "Goodbye to That Place" essay, and the beautiful, bawdy, and devastating books she's been reading. Find the full Q&A:

In this Masters' Series course w Rachel Khong and guest authors Shruti Swamy, @rubenwrites.bsky.social, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, & Hilary Leichter, we’ll engage in the practice of imagination—the bedrock of all fiction.

Learn more & register (early bird discount expires Sunday!): buff.ly/Jn7zKUJ

To Holly Brickley, San Francisco meant anticipation: cotton-candy houses and street punks. She'd always imagined moving there to be a writer, but when she did, what happened next she could never have anticipated. Read this electric second essay in our "Goodbye to that Place" column: buff.ly/FYX73nl

This intensive (but free-wheeling) course will focus on desire as an engine of literary creation. Join Steve Almond w guest authors Camille Dungy, @meghamaj.bsky.social,
@sarahmanguso.bsky.social, & Anthony Doerr this fall to explore this most human of experiences: buff.ly/CUo4EhW

How often do we assign an entire imagined role—sometimes a villainous one—to a stranger? In @maggiedowns.bsky.social's essay, a group hike on the Inca Trail comes w both thinning air and thinning patience before things take a surprising turn.

Read here: buff.ly/jC7Fjma

Last chance to sign up for "Writing the Book Proposal," starting this Monday July 14. Join Raksha Vasudevan, @graywolfpress.bsky.social editor Anni Liu, literary agent Noelle Falcis-Math, and acclaimed writers Elisa Gabbert & @laurenmarkham.bsky.social to finalize your proposal: buff.ly/d0NTkxb

It's become an annual tradition: OA editors (and bffs) Anya Tchoupakov (@anyatchoup) & @aubereylescure.bsky.social on a Provençal terrace, snacking on saucissons and iced tea while staring down spreadsheets, discussing brilliant essay drafts, & brainstorming future OA hangs. #workingoffassignment

If you've had a tab open for weeks with Greg Marshall "Writing Humor" Masters' Series course, now is the time to register! Class starts this Sunday June 13th! Imbue your writing with humor alongside Greg, Sloane Crosley, Ben Phillipe, Parini Shroff, & @csittenfeld.bsky.social: buff.ly/ltjyNxo

To the Woman Who Spared Me an Orange — Off Assignment “Still, even as early motherhood plunged me into full-body, full-time fear, I wanted my baby to know the wild openness of travel: bus rides deep into the mountains, a tiny village down a dirt road,…

In conversation with @maggiedowns.bsky.social's Letter to a Stranger last week about a man encountered on the Inca trail, carrying a heavier load than most, is Sarah Menkedick's essay about early motherhood and a woman who gave her an orange in the Oaxacan mountains.

Read it here:

How do we occupy our bodies, what do we do with them, how do we feel in them? Explore this and more in our popular "Writing the Body" course w @margosteines.bsky.social, @christinajcooke.bsky.social, @porochista.bsky.social, @sarahmanguso.bsky.social, & Krys Malcolm Belc. buff.ly/JOxfnwQ

This week, we're reading: Chloé Caldwell's tell-all about selling her book WOMEN on dating apps; @mrbrianbenson.bsky.social's flash piece on the bane of existence that is 3:27pm; & Megan Marshall's essay on the left-handed women in her family, drawn from her book AFTER LIVES.

Read: buff.ly/6J14g1M