About

The 208 is a collaboration of writing students at Northwestern University in John Bresland’s creative writing course, “Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction.” Here, students are introduced to the major subgenres of creative nonfiction – essays tending toward journalism, meditation, memoir, and the lyric. We read works emblematic of these forms, including superior works that move fluidly between them. The idea driving this course is straightforward: we read the best of American nonfiction, put it under the microscope, try to see what makes it work. And we filter those findings through our own voices, our own styles, our own obsessions, in our own written attempts. We spend a lot of time in this class generating ideas, thinking through concepts as all writers must. Another goal for this class, no less important, is to acquire and hone critical skills that enable us to read closely the works of our peers, and to respond with honesty and sensitivity in equal measure.