New Haven, Connecticut •
Sunday, July 20, 2025 •
Vol. CXLVII
Writing in Place
Students in Cynthia Zarin’s spring 2020
creative writing workshop, “Writing About Place,” never expected to write their
final essays from lockdown, stuck in various apartments and childhood homes
across the country. The class spent the first half of the semester writing about
places they'd visited, routes they'd taken, and campus buildings with
opportunity for exploration. For the final assignment, Professor Zarin asked her
English 478 students to reflect on their current realities with essays entitled
“Writing in Place.” These essays deal with how to process and describe loss as
it occurs, how to discuss personal sadness despite feeling grateful, and above
all, how to find joy in unexpected places.
