Reading for Writers: Joan Didion & Virginia Woolf
What this is
A 90-minute workshop for writers who want to close the gap between the writing they admire and the writing they produce. Without editors or institutional support, writing online means developing your own standard. This workshop gives you a method for building it: reading great essays closely, so that what you notice on the page starts to shape what you do on yours.
Space is limited to 15 people.
Why close reading
The writers we admire didn't just read widely. They read carefully. Close reading is the practice of attending to how a text works, not just what it says: the sentences, the rhythm, the choices, the structure. When you learn to see those choices clearly, you start making them more deliberately in your own work.
What the workshop looks like
We will share two short essays beforehand: Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth" and Joan Didion's "At the Dam." Please come having read them. No literary background required.
In the workshop, we close read both essays together through a craft lens: what are these writers noticing, how do they establish stakes, where does the form strengthen the meaning. We then move into a bridge discussion: what does this mean for your own writing, and how do you start applying it.
What you'll leave with
A practical method for reading essays as a writer, and a clearer sense of what your own writing is reaching for.
About the facilitator
This workshop is led by Elena Navarrete, founder of Close Reading NYC. Elena studied Comparative Literature at Columbia University and has spent nine years in literary spaces as a reader, facilitator, and educator. Close Reading NYC has brought together over 200 readers across 12 cohorts working through some of the most ambitious novels in the literary canon.
Because Close Reading NYC is an independent, self-run community, refunds and exchanges are not available at this time. Thank you for your support. It genuinely makes this work possible.