We wrote a lyric essay for the English narrative project. A lyric essay is a short piece recreating an experience (real or imaginary but still plausible) of someone, not oneself. In our case, we personally interviewed one person distinctly different from ourselves and crafting a lyrical essay, pairing it with a visual image that deepened the portrayal of our subject’s experiences, conflicts, emotions, and perspectives. The inspiration behind this project comes from author Claudia Rankine’s lyrical essay collection, Citizen: An American Lyric.
Click here to read my lyrical essay, “Swathes.” To read the transcript of the interview I conducted to write this essay, click here.
As an English Honors student, I read an additional lyrical essay book and emulated the author’s style in my own writing. The book I chose was Heidi Czerwiec’s Fluid States. One of the essays, “Consider the Lobster Mushroom,” stood out to me because of the exploration of the connection between a fungus, Hypomyces lactifluorum, and literature. Both can be pervasive, silent intruders that alter the outcome of everything. Hence, I tried to emulate “Consider the Lobster Mushroom” in my study.