essay 30
write an essay in 30 days
October 13 – November 14, 2025
This fall, join a dedicated group of nonfiction writers committed to writing an essay (or a chapter) in an hour a day.
Not a workshop or class, but a program personalized for you: deep focus, just enough community, simple structure, support, and surprisingly good advice.
Choose from community-based and asynchronous options:
Shared and individualized prompts to inspire and challenge you—from notemaking to a finished draft
Monday craft conversations/generative workshops, or videos if asynchronous
Office hours
Weekly deadlines
Two private 30-minute developmental editing consultations with Kristin
Encouragement in the margins of new pages — but no obligation to give feedback to others
$500
(installment plan & sliding scale available)
Application Deadline: October 1
Registration Deadline: October 6
If you have questions about whether Essay 30 is what you need this fall, book a 15-minute conversation with Kristin.
Schedule
(all community events are on Zoom, and optional)
Launch meeting/opening workshop: Monday, October 13, 6-7:30pm ET
Craft conversations/generative workshops: Mondays 6-7:30pm ET
Week One - Collect and organize an archive of evidence and make good notes; put your inner critics to work for you; learn new ways of finding your way through research, memory, and chaos
Week Two - Do expert experiments in image-making, scene-writing, and translating/synthesizing research
Week Three - Try fresh approaches to crafting story, understanding your train of thought, and turning the tension between story and thought into your essay’s poetics
Week Four - Make good decisions about pacing, order, expansion, and what to cut
Week Five - Cross the threshold to revising for your reader
Final celebration and reading: Friday, November 14, 12-2pm ET
From past Essay 30 participants…
Essay 30 created time where I didn’t think I had any. I finished two essays and fell in love with sentences again. And I established a daily writing practice I can actually sustain, even on my busiest days. Writing feels alive to me again. This was transformative!
—Stephanie H.
Essay 30 made me write, rather than wait for the urge, and it made me think about the craft in ways that expanded my ideas around what my project could be.
—Heather G.
Essay 30 was life changing for my process. By coming back to the page each day for 30 days, I went beyond the "class" to begin developing a practice that is informing my writing in more nuanced and unspoken ways.
—Melissa S.
So very thankful I did this. It showed me how to better integrate writing into my daily routine and re-ignited my enthusiasm for the craft of writing. Essay 30 proved to me that I don’t need perfect conditions or my special place to write, that I can make a ritual of spending time with myself, no matter where I am, to do what I love.
—Amanda P.