BELFAST — A three-week course, "Writing the Personal Essay," will be offered on Saturdays 1:00 to 3:30 from November 4 -18 at Waterfall Arts on High Street in Belfast. The class will be led by essayist and poet Linda Buckmaster.

The personal essay has been undergoing a resurgence of interest and experimentation in recent decades, including in memoir. No matter your topic or writing experience, you will write (or re-write) a short (500- to 1,000-word ) essay each week and participate in multiple class exercises.

For inspiration and craft, we will read a variety of essayists and look at how they use the writer's toolkit of image, voice, language, narration, and structure, and how we might use them in our own writing. We will also view the gallery exhibits at Waterfall Arts for inspiration.

Whether you are a beginner or a published author, this class will help you move your writing to the next level. We will look at diverse essay forms including lyric, flash, braided, segmented, narrative, and experimental. Whatever your favorite subject is, you will learn techniques to say what you want to say.

We'll maintain a safe, supportive environment that recognizes there is no such thing as a mistake in writing, just the next draft. For more information about the class, contact Linda at lsbuck1@gmail.com. To register, go to waterfallarts.org.

Linda Buckmaster's essay, poetry, and fiction have appeared in over thirty journals. One piece was listed as a "Notable Essay" in Best American Essays 2013. She has taught in the University of Maine System for more than two decades, and has been awarded residencies at Vermont Studios Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Obras Foundation in Portugal, among others. Her hybrid memoir, "Space Heart. A Story in Stages," will be published in 2018 by Burrows Press. She blogs at lsbuck1.blogspot.com.