Essay guide
Identity, community, and lived experience essays
These prompts ask who you are and what shaped you. The strongest answers zoom in on one specific story instead of summarizing a whole life.
How to approach it
- Pick one moment or place, not a montage: a shift at your job, one conversation, one room in your house.
- Show the before and after: what did you believe or do differently because of it?
- Connect it forward: one sentence on how this shapes what you want to do next is enough.
- Read it aloud. If a sentence could appear in anyone else's essay, cut or sharpen it.
Do
- Use concrete detail (names, sounds, objects)
- Keep the timeline tight
- Let discomfort stay in the story
Avoid
- Open with a dictionary definition
- List every activity you do
- Claim a lesson the story does not show
Example essays
Real published collections, not our own writing. Read a few before drafting; notice how specific they get.