Write Personal Essays to Build Your Platform & Earn a Paycheck

Posted byMelissa HartPosted inUncategorizedTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hi, Writers! I hope you’re having a lovely June. It’s warm and sunny here in Eugene, Oregon, and grass pollen is making everyone miserable. But there are strawberries and garter snakes and sugar snap peas, so I’m happy.

I’ve had personal essays on my mind ever since I created my self-paced online course on how to write personal essays for newspapers, magazines, and beyond. Interested? Preview two free lessons in the course right here.

I’m excited about a few editorial calls for submissions, and didn’t want to wait until July 1st:

  • Awakenings Journal is looking for personal essays about mental illness.
  • Big Wing Review wants personal essays about healing.
  • Viator needs travel-related essays by Latinx writers.
  • Business Insider wants personal essays about parenting, lifestyle, etc.
  • HuffPost Personal is always looking for personal essays; I love working with these editors!
  • Writer’s Digest is offering a free personal essay challenge the last week of June with lots of fun prompts and discussions.

Before I forget, I have two new self-paced online lessons: How to Sell Personal Essays and How to Use Personal Essays to Promote Your Book.

And I still have a few spots available in this fabulous weekend writing workshop in Ashland, Oregon; we’ll immerse ourselves in personal essays, and in good food and musical theater at Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

I hope all’s well, and I look forward to seeing you in person or virtually.

Happy Summer!

Melissa

Published by Melissa Hart

​I'm an Oregon-based author, journalist, public speaker, and instructor for the MFA in Creative Writing program at Southern New Hampshire University. My essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Real Simple, Orion, High Country News, The Rumpus, Brevity, Woman's Day, The Advocate, Parents, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Hemispheres, and numerous other publications. I'm the author of Daisy Woodworm Changes the World (Jolly Fish, 2022), The Media Adventurer's Handbook: Decoding Persuasion in Everyday News, Ads, and More (World Citizen Comics, 2023), Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Acceptance in Tweens and Teens(Sasquatch, 2019), the award-winning middle-grade novel Avenging the Owl(Sky Pony, 2016), the memoir Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family (Lyons, 2007), and the memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2005). I'm a contributing editor at The Writer Magazine, and I speak frequently at K-12 schools, writing conferences, libraries, universities, and bookstores. I grew up near Los Angeles with my younger brother, who has Down syndrome. I live in Eugene with my husband and teen daughter, where I love to run and hike long-distance, cross country ski, kayak, cycle, cook, and roam the Pacific Northwest as an amateur naturalist.

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