Mieke Eerkens

Biography

Mieke Eerkens is a Dutch-American writer who grew up in Los Angeles. She earned a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, an MA in English from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She has been an instructor in the Magid Center Undergraduate Writing Program at the University of Iowa, UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program in Los Angeles, and at Amsterdam University College and Leiden University College in The Netherlands, among others. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, Pen America, Pank, Guernica, and Creative Nonfiction. Her work has further been anthologized in Best Travel Writing 2011; Norton’s Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts; and A Book of Uncommon Prayer, selected as a “notable essay” in Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015, and has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  All Ships Follow Me (Picador), a book about her parents’ respective experiences in WWII and the inheritance of war trauma, was published in 2019. She is currently working on a memoir about her younger years travelling with the circus. She lives in Amsterdam.

Events

mieke eerkens cropped photo

Flash Forward: Writing Micro Nonfiction

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The fast-paced, social media-dominated society in which we live today, combined with people’s enduring hunger to connect with true stories of others, has made flash prose a popular form of writing for both readers and writers. Generally under 1000 words and more often under 500, flash prose pieces can provide a welcome break from longer book projects while keeping our writing muscles active. Producing complete flash essays in a comparatively short time can also foster a sense of tangible accomplishment. But writing a successful flash essay is not as easy as it looks! In this weekend workshop for writers at all levels, you’ll learn how to craft creative nonfiction flash essays through the use of helpful prompts, exchange light critiques to help you polish your flash essays for potential publication, and read examples of effective flash essays for class discussion about the craft elements that make each of them successful. Expect to produce one or more rough drafts for flash essays in this class that you can further polish at home, and to have a lot of fun!

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments and provide feedback on writing you produce in your weekend. 
mieke eerkens cropped photo

Transforming an Idea into a Book: A Roadmap for Book-Length Nonfiction & Memoir

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Maybe you have an exciting idea for a memoir or narrative nonfiction book you’d like to write. “That’s a great idea!” people say. “Just write it!” they say. So you sit down and write. And you write. And you write some more. But the story meanders aimlessly, spins off in multiple directions, or seems to fizzle after 30 or 40 pages. You aren’t sure where it’s going, how to tell your story, or how to actually turn this unwieldy thing into a book. Do not despair. You are not alone. This workshop is for you! In this workshop, we will talk about common pitfalls in writing a book-length project. We’ll discuss things like the importance of structure and a clear understanding of the underlying themes that drive your book in order to carry your reader from chapter to chapter. We’ll share our individual projects and writing to receive peer and instructor feedback, and to evaluate potential overarching issues. You’ll leave the course with tangible resources to support you, and a better idea of how to approach and develop your longer writing project, so that when you return home you will feel more confident about where exactly you’re going when you sit down to write your book.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments, and provide feedback on writing you produce in our week.
mieke eerkens cropped photo

PROMPTAPALOOZA! 10 Prompts to Generate 10 Beginnings in 2 Days

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Yes! It’s back! Post-lockdown, in person, and better than ever, the popular Promptapalooza prompt-a-thon promises to stock you with enough fresh material for 10 narrative essays, stories, or even a book, to flesh out over the months following the class. In an invigorating, supportive, no-pressure environment, we’ll use tested and effective writing prompts to get some “seedlings” planted for further development after the course. We’ll have some time to discuss and share our work each day and get some light feedback on how to proceed with the work we’ve generated, as well as get a list of prompts to generate new material at home. Get ready to surprise yourself with your own creativity and reconnect to your love of writing. It’s a fast-moving, exciting, generative class that’s adaptable to nonfiction and fiction writers of any experience level. 10 prompts. 2 days. Let’s do this!

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.
Mieke Eerkens photo