Writers of creative nonfiction often play with forms borrowed from fiction and poetry -- but they also take shapes from nonliterary forms out in the world, like quizzes, recipes, board game rules, liner notes, questionaires, field guides, bibliographies, letters, or instruction manuals. Essays that take their inspiration from other forms have been referred to as found, borrowed, or appropriated, and the term "hermit crab essay" has also gained popularity. Coined by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, the hermit crab essay is a piece that "appropriates existing forms as anouter covering, to protect its soft, vulnerable underbelly. It is an essay that deals with material that seems born without its own carapace--material that is soft, exposed, and tender, and must look elswhere to find the form that will best contain it." This workshop will explore the rocess of taking "shells" from the world around us and using them to structure our essays. 

Nancy McCabe is the author of six books, most recently Can This Marriage Be Saved? A Memoir (Missouri 2014). Nancy's young adult novel Vaulting Through Time is due out in Summer 2023. Her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including, most recently, Salon, the Brevity Blog, Essay Daily, Entropy, ACM, and Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo. She's the recipient of a Pushcart and eight recognitions on Best American notable lists.