Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 16hHey, hey, it's Submission Saturday! Assay is looking for your nonfiction scholarship, informal analysis, and nonfiction pedagogy--as well as even more informal submissions for our Substack series. For more information, visit our website! buff.ly/9fikydq 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026As we continue our celebration of our new fall issue, Richard A. Decker's Process as Processing: An Analysis of Illustration and AI Use in Vauhini Vara’s “Ghosts” is a thought-provoking consideration of a thorny question. Read more at buff.ly/tjwiUfE 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026We love a good essay on the essay, don't you? If you haven't seen Micah McCrary's "This Essay is a Dress," check it out! More at buff.ly/RS9ht8O. 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Read more at buff.ly/6aeLt1Vbuff.lySamantha Edmonds, "I Create as I Speak: Myth-Making in Creative Nonfiction" (Assay 13.1)ASSAY: A JOURNAL OF NONFICTION STUDIES 13.1 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Samantha Edmonds, in "I Create as I Speak: Myth-Making in Creative Nonfiction," argues that "mythopoeia—though most associated with speculative and fantasy genres—is not in itself a genre at all; it is a technique, and thus can be applied to any category of writing, including creative nonfiction." 110
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Today we're highlighting David Berridge's terrific "Again, but Different, and Again: A Pedagogy of Excess in The Writing Life of Annie Dillard," a timely spotlight of the late Annie Dillard. Read more at buff.ly/RS9ht8O! 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026New on Proctoring the Essay this week, John spends time with the mighty Cheryl Strayed. Read more at buff.ly/KRJHtvV 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Fresh from our new fall issue, Joanna Eleftheriou's marvelous interview with Heidi Czerwiec, co-editor of the almost-hot-off-the-press Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay! Read more at buff.ly/RS9ht8O! 021
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Hello, Substack Sunday! Are you subscribed to Assay's Substack yet? We've recently migrated here from Wordpress for all our between the issues content, from John Proctor's new series on Best American Essays to our long running series My Favorite Essay to Teach and The Backlist, and more. Join us! 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026It's Submission Saturday! We're looking for scholarship, informal analysis, and pedagogy for our spring issue and beyond. Send your work today! More details at buff.ly/tjwiUfE. 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The first piece in Assay's brand new fall issue is Tim Bascom's fantastic "Picturing the Perfect Essay: A Visual Guide," the most delightful visual exploration of essays we know of. #AssayJournal #EssaysThatMatter #CreativeNonfiction 111
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026We're excited to have a fresh, bright issue for you! For Fall 2026 we're delighted to publish David Berridge and Richard A. Becker's terrific nonfiction pedagogy. Head to assayjournal.com to check out the latest issue! ✨ 011
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Sun's out, new Assay's out ☀️ Here's the last preview of our Fall 2026 issue, featuring Micah McCrary's great essay on the essay and three magnificent new additions to the Assay Interview Project! Head to our website at assayjournal.com for the new issue! ✨ 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Visit our website at assayjournal.com to check out the latest issue!buff.lyASSAY: A JOURNAL OF NONFICTION STUDIESPublishing the best nonfiction scholarship and pedagogy. 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Don't you just love fall? Goodbye heat domes, hello cozy season--and hello new Assay! We're excited to have a fresh issue to share today! For Fall 2026 we're delighted to publish the likes of Tim Bascom, Samantha Edmonds, Janelle Lynch, Robert Root, and Benjamin Wielechowski in our articles. 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Happy Fall! The shiny new issue of Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies is hot off the presses and smelling of apple cider and maple leaves! Grab some hot chocolate and a cozy blanket, and check out the delightful new nonfiction scholarship and pedagogy we have for you! 102
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Submissions are open at @pleiadesmagazine for poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and translation! Check out their full guidelines at Duosuma. buff.ly/XnEcFxk 🖼️ from Pleiades #FriendsOfAssay #WritingCommunity #AssayJournal #OpenSubmissions #OpenCall 111
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 19/06/2026@triohousepress let's go ✨👨💻 #FriendsOfAssay #OpenReading #OpenCall #Submissions #CreativeWriting 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 18/06/2026#WritingCommunity #CreativeNonfiction #Essaying #AssayJournal #throwback 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 18/06/2026"A funny thing happened on the way to the Global Village..." Miles Harvey argues that in the Information Age, all writers are travel writers. What can 19th-century philosopher William James teach us about navigating our modern narrative fault lines? Find out in Assay 2.2: buff.ly/skpZa7f 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Read how scholars continue to unpack her brilliant craft here: buff.ly/cx42BXK 🎨 American Libraries Magazine #MarjaneSatrapi #Persepolis #GraphicMemoir #CreativeNonfiction #AssayJournal #NonfictionStudies #LiteraryLegacy 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026We are continually honored to see her lines analyzed and taught within our pages, serving as a cornerstone of literary citizenship. 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Her work amazed scholars, teachers, and readers alike and taught how the image-text space can heal fractures between history and the self. 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026By weaving together the visual language of comics with the intimacy of the personal essay, she dismantled decades of narratives surrounding the Islamic Revolution. 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026We are grieving the immense loss of Marjane Satrapi today. Our hearts go out to her loved ones. 🕊️🧵 Satrapi's blockbuster "Persepolis" fractured traditional binary narratives of history. She taught us how to look at the gaps, the margins, and the complex truths of exile. 110
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Read: buff.ly/RNvs6Sv Photo by Europeana on Unsplash #NonfictionStudies #CraftOfWriting #LyricEssay #WritingCommunity #PaulGruchow #BrianTurner #AssayArchive #AssayJournal #MentalHealth 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 18/05/2026"Art is not nature and shouldn't try to imitate it." Doug Carlson explores why Paul Gruchow and Brian Turner turned to abstract shapes to map the realities of depression and combat survival in Assay 1.2. A brilliant look at tactile space and reader participation in the memoir form. 🧵 120
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 13/05/2026We're focusing on flash interviews today! Take a glance at these wonderful tidbits from @amymonticello in this 2021 To Wit interview. Read here: buff.ly/cetW7Og #AssayJournal #AssayInterviewProject #ToWit #FlashInterviews #AmyMonticello #throwback 020
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Photo by Izzy E on Unsplash #AssayJournal NonfictionStudies #CreativeNonfiction #DocumentaryPoetics #FilmStudies #StorytellingCraft #CorinnaCook #DanielJanke #HowPeopleGotFire 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 12/05/2026How do we document the intangible? In a piece for Assay 4.2, Corinna Cook dives deep into Daniel Janke’s film How People Got Fire, exploring the fascinating intersection of animation, oral history, and documentary poetics. Read the full analysis here: buff.ly/P7XxIkx 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 06/05/2026Feeling Human Again: Toward a Pedagogy of Radical Empathy by Stephanie Geudet is a pedagogy piece from Assay issue 2.2. Guedet explores how sharing personal narratives in the classroom can cultivate deep, transformative empathy among students. Read ➡️ buff.ly/xjnP9E4 #Assay #FreeResources 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/05/2026 Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash #AssayJournal #ZoeStark #BrianDoyle #JoyasVoladoras #rhythm #form #EssaysThatMatter #nonfiction #CNF 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 01/05/2026A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. A blue whale’s heart is the size of a room. And the essay? The essay is the vessel that holds it all. 🪺 In her latest piece, Zoë Stark examines the beginning and the finality of the end. Step into the slipstream here: buff.ly/vPENH9f 131
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 24/04/2026 #AssayJournal #WritingExercise #CreativeNonfiction #WritingCraft #JillChristman #CNF #WritingCommunity #CloseObservation #EssayWriting Photo by Mandy Bourke on Unsplash 020
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Writer’s block? Stop brainstorming and start looking. 🔍 In Assay 12.2, Jill Christman teaches the "Writing the Tooth" method. It’s 30 minutes, no internet, just one object--and how she went from writing an essay about money to writing the raw, beautiful truth about motherhood. 🦷✨ 🔗 buff.ly/jPMz08K 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 22/04/2026 Photo by Finding Dan | Dan Grinwis on Unsplash #AssayJournal #Memoir #WritingCommunity #AgingWell #LifeWriting #CreativeNonfiction #Spring2026 #LynnZBloom 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 22/04/2026"Old age is not a dead end. It is a territory." 🗺️ In "Mapping the Surprising Territory of Old Age," Lynn Z. Bloom sits down with several memoirists to map the complex, surprising, and often uncharted landscapes of aging. Dive in here: buff.ly/3nqUyKb 101
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 21/04/2026#JillKolongowski #BrookeChampagne #NicoleGraevLipson #AmyMonticello #BethAnnFennelly #nonfiction #anger #rage #craft #crafttools #teachingresources 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 21/04/2026"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 111
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 20/04/2026Our 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 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash Interview by @juliemariewade #AssayJournal #SamuelAce #AssayInterviewProject #JulieMarieWade #memory #place #lyric #essay #memoir #collage 000
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 17/04/2026"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 110
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 16/04/2026#AssayJournal #KeeneShort #WritingBluesky #Nonfiction #Poetics #Essay Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 16/04/2026Can 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 110
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 15/04/2026#AssayJournal #NonfictionStudies #DavidLazar #QueerTheory #CreativeNonfiction #WritingCraft #TheEssay #GenderStudies #LiteraryTheory #Queer #LGBTQIA #genre 📸 by Moreno Matković on Unsplash 010
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 15/04/2026In 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 100
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies @assayjournal.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Alright Bluesky--what's your absolute FAVORITE essay to teach/read and why? Curious minds want to know! 000