Gwynne Monahan

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Category: Nonfiction

  • Nonfiction

Vivid, Poetic Language that Paints the Scene

  • Posted on April 10, 2018April 10, 2018
  • by Gwynne Monahan

Whether it’s a marathon of running, or a marathon of fighting six hours to cover a mile of ground to reach a dead soldier, Komatsu puts the reader next to him, embedded in the experience.

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  • Nonfiction

Connecting Essays Through First Paragraphs

  • Posted on March 19, 2018March 16, 2018
  • by Gwynne Monahan

As Angela Morales comes of age from one essay to the next, and discovers her own voice, she harkens back to the experiences that gave her voice.

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  • Nonfiction

Fireflies: Metaphorically Speaking

  • Posted on March 17, 2018March 16, 2018
  • by Gwynne Monahan

For Aimee Nezhukumatathil, fireflies function as both metaphor and a vehicle for memory.

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  • Nonfiction

Marking Time with Cultural Significance

  • Posted on March 16, 2018March 16, 2018
  • by Gwynne Monahan

In her essay, “So Many Rings,” Ana Maria Spagna is able to keep both her personal revelations through time and the reader grounded by using significant cultural events as time markers.

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  • Creative Writing

I Remember (Exercise)

  • Posted on March 15, 2015March 14, 2015
  • by Gwynne Monahan

A situation/event divided into two lists. For the first list, every line starts with “I remember.” For the second list, every line starts with “I don’t remember.” There is a difference.

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  • Nonfiction

Blinded by Peppiness

  • Posted on March 14, 2015
  • by Gwynne Monahan

There is no shortage of commentary on the "Blurred Lines" case, and its $7.4 million dollar award to the family of Marvin Gaye. Tim Wu does a nice job of outlining the case in The New Yorker, and his reference…

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  • Nonfiction

Acting over Expectation Results in a Fluke. Maybe.

  • Posted on October 20, 2014
  • by Gwynne Monahan

StoryStudio has these "In a Year" classes, and I have been selected to be part of its Memoir in a Year class. Truth be told, I'm still shocked. It being a memoir class, I chose a piece that started from…

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  • Nonfiction

The Self Profile

  • Posted on October 10, 2014October 10, 2014
  • by Gwynne Monahan

I’m taking a class, Writing the Other: The Power of the Profile, through the University of Chicago’s Graham School of Continuing Studies. Fiction and nonfiction classes at the Graham School are workshops, or what you’d expect if you were getting…

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  • Creative Writing

Declarative Statements

  • Posted on May 30, 2014
  • by Gwynne Monahan

A couple weeks into the Live Lit class, the instructor took us out into the hallway where he set down four pieces of paper: two labeled "AGREE" and two labeled "DISAGREE." He put them in separate corners so that no…

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  • Creative Writing

Live Lit @StoryStudio Second Descriptive Exercise

  • Posted on May 7, 2014May 7, 2014
  • by Gwynne Monahan

The second descriptive exercise, also two minutes. For this one, we had to pick one of three things, and I choose a weather event. The first descriptive exercise is here. I hugged the Starburst tightly to my chest as we…

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