Immersion writing during a pandemic: A journey of self-discovery
“Immersion Writing During a Pandemic: A Journey of Self-Discovery”
The Michigan Daily, March 7, 2021
By Rachel McKimmy, GLWC ’20
It was Jan. 8, 2020, the first day of class for the University of Michigan’s winter semester. Around 1 p.m., I was on my way to my literary journalism class without a clue of what sort of hardships the year would bring or the journey I was about to embark upon.
The course was not your typical journalism class — it was the first of a three-part series concocted by Molly Beer, an award-winning creative nonfiction writer, called the Great Lakes Writers Corps. 2020 was the year of the program’s introduction, and we were the first cohort of writers to participate. The first part would teach the craft of literary journalism and focus around planning a project. That summer, we would independently research our chosen topic on an environmental or social issue within the Great Lakes community. For the program’s final term in the fall, our time would be spent creating nonfiction stories about our experiences for publication.
At least, that was the plan. Nothing worked out the way we expected, of course….