Beauty & Rage in the Personal Essay
Online Classprerecorded class with Sonora Jha
October 17, 2026
A fat drop of dew holding on to the tip of a leaf can stun you with the beauty of the universe. A hot teardrop of rage can change the world. We will gather to bring such beauty and rage to our page in the form of the personal essay. Come with all the feelings that have coursed through you in these past months as our lives have posed new questions and changed old relationships. Let's write about memories, let's write about mortality. We will read brief excerpts from beautiful and rage-filled personal essays to inspire our own writing. We will leave with fresh writing to grow into whole essays or books.
Class length: 72 minutes; broken up into 9 parts and includes participant sharing.
Online Class FAQ’s
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Once you have registered you will receive an automatic email confirmation that includes the link and passcode to access the class. Please do not log into Wild Apricot as it is our registration site, not our online class site.
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This online class is a series of pre-recorded video sessions, divided into chapters in chronological order. Some classes feature the instructor and a small group of students in a cottage at the Hedgebrook retreat. Classes that began as live webinars feature just the instructor and voices of some of the webinar participants. Each class includes lectures and writing exercises. You may start and stop the video at any point. Most chapters end with a writing exercise.
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The class is one continuous session that you can take at your own pace (or over several days or a few weeks), with writing exercises woven in. The teacher will prompt you in the video when there is a writing exercise. After you’ve completed the writing exercise, simply play the next class video when you’re ready. There is no homework.
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This is totally up to you! Different classes are different lengths, and all are designed so you can move at your own pace. Once you register, you are welcome to return to the class as often as you like until the last day it’s offered. The classes in our Online Writing Series range anywhere from around 60 minutes to around 105 minutes of total recorded video time. The writing prompts will extend the total length of the class, depending on how many prompts there are. Each class is broken down into chapters, varying in length from around 5 to 20 minutes. Most of the chapters end with a writing prompt or exercise, which you can do on your own time simply by pausing the video and then coming back and starting with the next chapter. If not specified by your teacher, you might want to plan to spend 5-15 minutes on each of the writing prompts, in addition to the recorded instruction.
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No, the instructors are not available to review your work. These are pre-recorded classes that don’t include interaction with the teachers.
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When you register, you will see options to pay anywhere from $120 (support others to take the class) to the regular rate of $80, as well as a range from $20-40. For some who are not in a position to pay for the class at this time, there is also a free option. Each time you register for a class, you have an opportunity to decide how much you can pay.
“Hedgebrook isn't a retreat… it's an advance.”
–Gloria Steinem