Blog
Breaking Boundaries: How Brittany Ackerman Redefines What Essays Can Be
by Writing Workshops Staff
6 days ago
Brittany Ackerman is a writer whose experimental approach to essays challenges conventional structures and invites writers to invent their own shapes for storytelling. Her upcoming Writing Experimental Essays 4-Week Generative Zoom Workshop promises to be a transformative experience for writers ready to break free from traditional molds.
Ackerman, who has been writing since she was six years old, brings a decade of teaching experience and a passion for pushing creative boundaries. Her workshop isn't just about learning techniques; it's about discovering that your story doesn't need to fit into pre-existing structures.
Instead, you can craft the form your narrative needs, whether that's through collage, lyric fragments, braided narratives, or hybrid pieces that blend poetry with reportage. For writers feeling constrained by conventional essay forms, this workshop offers the permission to take risks and surprise themselves.
What makes Ackerman's approach particularly compelling is her belief that experimental writing encourages cross-pollination with other art forms. Students will explore how contemporary literature is evolving, engaging with pieces that break traditional boundaries while developing their own toolkit for making choices that serve their subject matter. This isn't about abandoning craft—it's about expanding what craft can encompass.
Find our Meet the Teaching Artist interview with Brittany below.
Q&A with Brittany Ackerman
Writing Workshops: Hi, Brittany. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Brittany Ackerman: Hello Writers! My name is Brittany and I've been writing since I was six years old in a fuzzy purple journal. My love of writing truly began at a young age, and I've carried that love with me now into teaching for the past decade. I enjoy The Great British Baking Show, shoegaze music, and reading books to my daughter.
Writing Workshops: What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
Brittany Ackerman: I wanted to teach an experimental essays class because I'm drawn to writing that breaks boundaries and reshapes form, and I want to share that sense of possibility with students. Traditional structures can feel limiting, and I see value in giving writers permission to take risks, invent forms, and discover new ways of telling their stories. Experimental essays encourage cross-pollination with poetry, visual art, and theory, and I'd like to create a space where students can explore that hybridity while engaging with the evolving landscape of contemporary literature.
Writing Workshops: Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part of this class you've dreamed up?
Brittany Ackerman: This course will unfold as a mix of reading, writing, and discussion. Each week, students will encounter a range of experimental essays—collages, lyric fragments, braided narratives, hybrid forms that blend poetry, reportage, and visual elements—and we'll talk about how and why these pieces work. Alongside readings, students will generate their own short experiments: exercises in form, constraint, or cross-genre play that build toward longer, more polished essays. Our time together will emphasize curiosity and risk-taking over perfection, encouraging students to surprise themselves.
Students can expect to leave the class with a portfolio of original essays, a deeper understanding of the possibilities of form, and a toolkit for making choices that serve their subject matter rather than defaulting to tradition.
My favorite part of this class is watching writers realize that they don't have to "fit" their stories into a pre-existing mold—they can invent the shape their writing needs. That moment of discovery is exhilarating, both for them and for me.
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Brittany Ackerman: I have a very vivid memory of receiving my first copy of A Bear Called Paddington, which came with a shortbread cookie, some sort of promotion, and falling in love with that character. Something about all the mishaps this well-meaning bear experiences felt, even then, very human to me. I guess I see myself as a sort of Paddington, finding my way in the world, and redefining what community means to me.
Writing Workshops: What are you currently reading?
Brittany Ackerman: I'm currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro as research for my next book. My husband got the paperback for me, and it's been a lovely read so far-- a dystopian novel that explores mortality, friendship, identity, and the human condition.
Writing Workshops: How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Brittany Ackerman: I choose what I'm working on by following the questions, images, or ideas that keep returning to me—things I can't stop turning over in my mind. Often it starts small: a sentence, a moment, a voice that won't let go. I know it's the piece I want to take all the way to the end when I start feeling both urgency and curiosity—when I can't help but ask, "What happens next? How far can I push this?" That tension between wanting to explore and wanting to solve it keeps me moving through drafts. Sometimes it's also a sense of conversation with the work itself: it keeps surprising me, challenging me, and I realize I owe it a full journey.
Writing Workshops: Where do you find inspiration?
Brittany Ackerman: I find inspiration in a lot of places—sometimes in the quiet moments of observation, like watching people interact out in the open or noticing the way light hits the trees on a solo walk. Other times it comes from books, music, or art that unsettles or excites me, or from everyday objects and routines that feel slightly strange when I pay attention. Conversations, memories, and even small frustrations often spark ideas—anything that makes me pause and ask, "What if…?"
Writing Workshops: What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Brittany Ackerman: My grad school mentor told me the best writing happens when you write through something, not around it. Instead of avoiding difficult emotions, ideas, or truths, you lean into them, even when it feels uncomfortable. That tension, that willingness to confront the hard parts, is often what gives a piece its depth, resonance, and vitality.
Writing Workshops: What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Brittany Ackerman: My favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing is Body Work by Melissa Febos. I love it because it goes beyond technical advice and dives into the intimacy of writing itself—how to engage with desire, vulnerability, and the body in storytelling. Febos models a fearless, deeply personal approach to essay writing that challenges writers to confront what they care about most and to trust their own voice. For anyone looking to experiment with form and emotional honesty, this book is both a guide and a call to risk-taking.
Writing Workshops: Bonus question: What's your teaching vibe?
Brittany Ackerman: My teaching vibe is encouraging, curious, and playful. I aim to create a space where students feel safe to take risks and push the boundaries of their writing. I mix discussion, experimentation, and hands-on exercises, always keeping the focus on discovery rather than perfection. I love asking questions that spark imagination, nudging students to follow what excites or unsettles them, and celebrating the unique voices that emerge in the process.
Ready to break free from traditional essay forms and discover what your writing can become? Brittany Ackerman's Writing Experimental Essays 4-Week Generative Zoom Workshop offers the perfect opportunity to explore the boundaries of your creativity. Join a community of writers ready to take risks, invent new forms, and surprise themselves with what's possible on the page. Your stories are waiting for the shape only you can give them.
Instructor Brittany Ackerman is a writer from Riverdale, New York. She earned her BA in English from Indiana University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University. She has led workshops for UCLA’s Extension, The Porch, HerStry, Write or Die, Lighthouse Writers, and Stanford. She is a 3x Pushcart Prize Nominee, and her work has been featured in The Sun, MUTHA, Jewish Book Council, Lit Hub, The Los Angeles Review, No Tokens, Joyland, and more. Her first collection of essays, The Perpetual Motion Machine, was published with Red Hen Press in 2018, and her debut novel, The Brittanys, is out now with Vintage. She has a forthcoming novel with CLASH Books called The Style of Your Life.
