Erica Trabold

Apr 10, 2023 | lithub.com | Zoe Bossiere |Erica Trabold

Once, the lyric essay did not have a name. Or, it was called by many names. More a quality of writing than a category, the form lived for centuries in the private zuihitsu journals of Japanese court ladies, the melodic folktales told by marketplace troubadours, and the subversive prose poems penned by the European romantics. *Before I came to lyric essays, I came to writing. When my teacher asked the class to write a story for homework, I couldn’t believe my luck.

Mar 13, 2023 | wsupress.wayne.edu | Zoe Bossiere |Erica Trabold

Resistance and representation manifests in the subversive genre of the lyric essay. Lyric essayists draw on memoir, poetry, and prose to push against the arbitrary genre restrictions in creative nonfiction, opening up space not only for new forms of writing, but also new voices and a new literary canon. This anthology features some of the best lyric essays published in the last several years by prominent and emerging writers.