lyric essay presentation for class

1. Lyric essay
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a...hybrid form of creative nonfiction

2. Genesis
Most credit The Seneca Review for the nomenclature and
sudden popularity of the Lyric Essay (see its Fall, 1997 issue
& subsequent issues; link on website)
Championed by writer John D’Agata (Lifespan of a Fact;
we’ll read more of his work in Intermediate Nonfiction)
Often described as a hybrid between nonfiction & poetry,
but just as often, if not more often, manifests in myriad
forms

3. Characteristics
Emphasis on use of language, employment of visual
imagery, metaphor (not actually only the dominion of
poets, but this is largely the “lyric” element of the lyric
essay)
Experimentation with form
“True” but less concerned with evidentiary means,
exhaustive argument, conventional methods of structure

4. Language & Form

6. Language
Emmanuel’s Spring
Chris Haven
Terrible Emmanuel plants. He has seen what can come of the earth and he digs.
Rotting peels and tin cans first. Blue shirts and sweat. He considers his wing but
refrains. This is a crop. Sequins and stone. A diamond. Fourteen tree stumps
and he needs a bigger hole. A checkered rag and Jimmy Carter’s teeth. Black
beards. Anthracite coal and light sweet crude and a ticker machine. The hole
goes deep. It is transformative. Knives and the buttons from every machine. A
glass jar. Window screens. A dusting of his own dominion. It occurs to him the
hole is incomplete and he wishes he could take the happiness he sees but that’s
outside his creation. It should always be buried, he thinks, because of what the
darkness can do. The last in is black smoke. He fills the hole and regards the
mound with disdain. His earlier optimism saddens him. He realizes that the child
he was, the one who believed in the earth, is buried in that hole. He considers
his hand. The shovel has bitten into his skin. It has left ragged marks like teeth
around an apple. Terrible Emmanuel turns and sniffs the air. Spring will have to
wait. There’s more burying to do.

7. Form
What you’ll see with many lyric essays are
experimentations with form, and it’s constrictive to say
“here are the forms of the lyric essay.”
Nonetheless, there are some forms that tend to be used
with some frequency, as outlined in “Tell It Slant”
(But devising one’s own form is entirely appropriate)

8. Prose Poem/Flash Nonfiction
We looked at flash nonfiction through Brevity Magazine
earlier in the semester
Flash nonfiction—like a prose poem—hones in more on
language and imagery—where the concise nature of the
form requires close attention to each word
As with all poetry, this form also focuses on rhythm and
cadence (although, again, poetry is not the only genre
concerned with rhythm and cadence).

9. Flash
ANOTHER EPIC
BY DANTE DI STEPHANO
I have lived in important places, times
—Patrick Kavanagh
I could tell you everything that happened on Linden Street the year the Berlin Wall fell. That was the
year the Hanrahan boy grew his hair to the middle of his back and rode his bike down the block at
seven a.m. sharp every school day. The Perry twins, with red hair longer than the Hanrahan boy’s,
vied for the affections of Dino Taglione and the older girl won. The pipes burst on 20 Linden, and
we lost the love letters my grandmother had bundled in hatboxes and stored in a corner of the
cellar. Masty Hubba danced for loosies and beer in front of the Brickyard Tavern all summer, and
somebody kept stealing the copper gutters off Saint Mary’s rectory roof. Monsignor Brigandi kept
replacing them, and he would curse and pray as he paced the block, throughout all the high holy
days of Ordinary Time, like Achilles in his tent.
—

10. COLLAGE
The idea behind collage is to fit together—in writing—
otherwise fragmented pieces, in order to create a whole.
Super easy! (Super kidding). But there are many fine
examples of collage essay to consider. For instance, “Tell It
Slant” cites David Shields’ piece “Life Story,” a lyric essay
composed entirely of bumper sticker slogans that that take
the reader “from the crib to the grave.”

11. Braided Essay
Like the collage, uses fragments to create a new whole; like
certain forms of poetry, uses repetition, the reappearance
of certain “strands” of the braid.
“Fourth State of Matter,” which we read last week, is one
example of a braided essay, because the author has two
“strands” she weaves back and forth
A braided essay can also be significantly more fragmented
than Beard’s piece (and shorter)

12. Hermit Crab
The form itself is a metaphor, as you read in Tell It Slant.
The hermit crab has no armor, so spends its (his/her?
Unsure of hermit crab biology, I’m afraid) life occupying
other creatures’ shells.
Example in text is Lorrie Moore’s “How to Become a
Writer,” which uses the “self help” shell/instructional
manual format to tell what is in fact a personal lyric story
In “The Pain Scale,” Eula Bliss uses the form of the pain
scale as her structure. Let’s look at that essay

13. Lyric Essay Assignment
Using one of the exercises on Page 123 of Tell It Slant, write a lyric essay that will be work shopped in class on
Dec. 10 (rough draft due on Dec. 3; all these dates are on our class website)
FAQ:
Do I HAVE to use one of these 18 exercises? Can I make up my own?
I’d rather you use one of these exercises. But if you believe that none of these exercises serve your purposes
and that you have a better idea, sure. 
Can I actually do Exercise #18?
You are welcome to also record your assignment; but remember that it needs to be in written form for the
class.
Other questions?