#JillKolongowski #BrookeChampagne #NicoleGraevLipson #AmyMonticello #BethAnnFennelly #nonfiction #anger #rage #craft #crafttools #teachingresources

"writing rage is joyful, right, instinctual, unadulterated, and most of all, corrective." ⚡️

What does it mean for women, in particular, or other marginalized groups, to embrace anger in their craft? What's the generative potential?

Come find out & rage with us: buff.ly/v8upg3W

#AssayJournal

Our therapist: And what do we do when we're feeling overwhelmed by everything?
Us: Read another essay!
Therapist: *puts down spray bottle* that's...that's actually not a bad idea

Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash
Interview by @juliemariewade
#AssayJournal #SamuelAce #AssayInterviewProject #JulieMarieWade #memory #place #lyric #essay #memoir #collage

"I find genre categories impossibly narrow," says author Samuel Ace in today's interview spotlight. Part essay, part memoir, and part collage, "I want to start by saying" is "a constellation of memory, personal and place-based histories..."

Read the excellent interview here: buff.ly/Mo83kxO

#AssayJournal #KeeneShort #WritingBluesky #Nonfiction #Poetics #Essay

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

Can erasure be a form of truth-telling? What is found in the space where words used to be? 🤔

Short examines Erin Dorney’s work in our latest issue to uncover an "ontology of ambivalence"—where the gaps in the text become the most vital parts of the essay.

Dive into this study ⬇️
buff.ly/7zGLYhX

#AssayJournal #NonfictionStudies #DavidLazar #QueerTheory #CreativeNonfiction #WritingCraft #TheEssay #GenderStudies #LiteraryTheory #Queer #LGBTQIA #genre

📸 by Moreno Matković on Unsplash

In Assay 12.2, David Lazar (@davidlazarwriter) explores the "indissolubly linked" roots of genre and gender. Lazar argues that the essay, much like queer identity, thrives on resistance to stability, categories, and normative standards. 🏳️‍🌈✨

🔗 Read the full article here: buff.ly/RKuAVbT

Alright Bluesky--what's your absolute FAVORITE essay to teach/read and why? Curious minds want to know!

#AssayJournal #NonfictionStudies #WritingCraft #BernardCooper #MaxRubin #TheEssay #CreativeNonfiction #LiteraryAnalysis #Syntax

📸 by Tianlei Wu on Unsplash

How can a single sentence contain the DNA of an entire essay? 🧬

In Assay 12.2, Max Rubin breaks down Bernard Cooper’s mastery of the "essayistic sentence." A deep dive into assertions, unanswerable questions, and the "folds and bones" of Cooper’s prose.

Read the full analysis: buff.ly/TKFVYr5

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

#AssayJournal #NewIssue #WilliamGruber #allusiveness #allusion

"Allusiveness sprawls across all literature," writes William Gruber in today's spotlight for Assay Issue 12.2. 💃

From Laura Ingalls Wilder and Joan Didion, Gruber makes the case for allusiveness as "how literature keeps its past alive in its present."

Read the full article here: buff.ly/HC1BlYm

Hi folks! Just a happy little reminder: we are moving our In the Classroom blog to Substack!

Go follow assayjournal.substack.com for pedagogy hot takes and publication opportunities for grads!

more wonderful content from our latest issue is coming next week! ✨📖
#AssayJournal #Substack

You have roughly 3 weeks to still submit your beautiful writing to our friends at @sundoglit!

head to buff.ly/U4MtFh1 for more info!

📸 @sundoglit
#FriendsOfAssay #OpenCall #Nonfiction #WritingSubmissions

Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies | Substack The purpose of Assay is to publish the best critical scholarship of nonfiction texts, to facilitate all facets of nonfiction conversations in a variety of disciplines, and to be a resource for writers, scholars, readers, and teachers of nonfiction. Click to read Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, a Substack publication.

Friendly reminder that we are moving our In the Classroom blog to Substack! Follow assayjournal.substack.com for #pedagogy and craft talk, as well as #publication opportunities for grads! #nonfiction #AssayJournal

How do images change the way we read? In this Assay #throwback, Elizabeth Paul dives into Eduardo Galeano’s "The Book of Embraces."

Check out Paul's "Seeing in Embraces" here: buff.ly/NAAwKjG .
📸 by Miguel Alcântara on Unsplash
#AssayJournal #ThrowbackThursday #CreativeNonfiction #EduardoGaleano

📸 by Alan Jones on Unsplash
#AssayJournal #HeatherLanier #EssaysThatMatter #Awe #Neuroscience #Pedagogy #Nonfiction

"Awe reminds us of our belonging in larger communities and ecosystems." 🌀

Can writers create essays that intentionally induce awe? Heather Lanier, w/ her article "The Science of Awe and the Essay" in Assay 12.2. asks just that.

Read the full article to find out: buff.ly/r0XorC3

#AssayJournal #AssayInterviewProject #Nonfiction #BethAnnFennelly #MicroMemoir #CreativeNonfiction #WritingCraft #TheIrishGoodbye #LiteraryJournal
📸 by Tom Spross on Unsplash

"I expect, always, to be judged harshly for my choices... But, strangely, often the opposite thing happens."

In Assay 12.2, @bethannfennelly talks with Nicole S. Piasecki about the terrifying, wonderful vulnerability of publishing memoir.

Check out the full interview: buff.ly/CewfsQy

What makes an essay successful? Atkins argues it’s the "tension everywhere present."

In our new Spring 2026 issue (12.2), Atkins interrogates the "course of interpretive discovery" via White, Thoreau, and Sanders.

A must-read, found here: buff.ly/LbmuDSm

📸 by NOAA on Unsplash
#AssayJournal

🚧 PARDON THE CONSTRUCTION: We are migrating our In the Classroom blog to Substack!

B/t issues of Assay, if you're looking for community, more pedagogy to think on, or publication (looking at you, grad students! 👀), we've got you covered.

follow ⬇️ assayjournal.substack.com

#AssayJournal #Blog

Our friends at Prairie Schooner are open for book reviews + interview submissions year-round! Head to their Submittable page for full guidelines. 📖🎙️

#FriendsOfAssay #PrairieSchooner #LitMag #bookreviews #interviews #opencall #submissions

We're excited to have a fresh, bright issue for you! ✨🌸

For Spring 2026 we're delighted to publish @jillchristman.bsky.social and her pedagogical essay "Writing the Tooth" It's a masterful essay and exercise on finding minute details 🦷

Head to assayjournal.com to check out the latest issue!

With spring comes the sun...and new Assay! ☀️

We're excited to have a certified fresh issue to share today! For Spring 2026 we're delighted to publish the likes of Lynn Z. Bloom, Heather Lanier, David Lazar, Christine Light, and Keene Short in our nonfiction articles.

Head to our website for more!

Spring has sprung! We're so pleased to launch Assay's Spring 2026 issue today, full of brand new articles, conversations, interviews, and pedagogy--enjoy!

Our friends at @theflreview.bsky.social are still taking submissions for their Editors' Award in Creative Nonfiction! Details are below. 👇

#FriendsOfAssay #OpenSubmissions #CallToWrite #CNF #Nonfiction #EssaysThatMatter #LitMag #FLReview #FloridaReview #writing #contest

In his 2017 piece for @AssayJournal, @taybro1987 breaks down Brian Doyle’s "Dawn and Mary." It’s a masterclass in powerful minimalism.

Read the full craft analysis here: buff.ly/CUFRqMT
📸 peiqi Gu on Unsplash
#AssayJournal #AssaySpotlight #SandyHook #EssaysThatMatter #CreativeNonfiction #LitMag