It’s been called the “holy grail” of personal essay publications: the Modern Love column in the New York Times. Your best story. 1500 words. A potentially career-changing publication. We’ll talk about what it takes and how to get your piece noticed.

In this one-session course, we’ll talk about selecting stories, following the form, and the keys to making your essay stand out. We’ll also cover the ethics of writing about other people, and how to handle what happens if and when you do have a deeply personal piece published.

And hey, even if your essay doesn’t get accepted by the editors, writing a Modern Love is a great practice in form, precision, and boiling down a story to its core. A lot of what we’ll cover here are skills that are useful in writing any personal essay.

How to Write a Modern Love with Amy Shearn