Amy Paturel

For more than 15 years, Amy has taught hundreds of aspiring and professional writers how to tackle a personal essay. She pens essays for The New York Times, Parents, Health, Women’s Health, The Los Angeles Times and several other publications. Two of her pieces have been featured in Newsweek’s “My Turn” column, and she has won two “honorable mention” awards in ASJA’s personal essay category (2009 and 2011).

Essay Writing: How to Find the Story in You – and Sell It

SIX WEEK PERSONAL ESSAY WRITING WORKSHOP

COST FOR THE SELF-GUIDED COURSE: $325

Do you have ideas stuck in your head instead of on the page, or piles of unfinished essays hibernating on your hard drive? It’s time to unearth those gems and get them published!

This six-week online course will guide you through every step, from essay idea to salable piece. You’ll learn how to:

  • Grab readers (and editors!)
  • Journal your way to essay ideas
  • Identify the critical elements of a salable essay
  • Critique your own essays and incorporate feedback from others
  • Pitch and submit essays

A parting gift: a loaded spreadsheet with more than 130 relevant markets, including editor contacts. Former students have landed essays in The New York Times, Washington Post, Parents, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping and others.

Once you click “buy,” you’ll receive a confirmation email confirming your purchase. Then, every Monday for six weeks, you’ll receive a new lesson that will uncover how to write a salable essay, including optional homework assignments and writing prompts. You’ll get a chance to dissect essays that work and also discover what doesn’t work (and why).

The course is loaded with tools for structuring a compelling essay and important questions to ask yourself before you submit your piece to a targeted market. You’ll even learn how to craft a pitch so an editor takes notice.

Have questions before you buy? Contact Amy here.




COST FOR THE SELF-GUIDED COURSE + FEEDBACK: $375

Includes everything in the course as described above, plus personalized feedback from Amy on an essay of your choice.

This option is ideal if you’re planning to pitch — and hopefully publish! — your essay. (If you do land a published piece, the pay at many publications will cover the cost of this course.) Please allow 1-2 weeks for feedback.




I’m a professional journalist, but when it came to writing personal essays, I wasn’t sure where to start. This course was a perfect jumping-off point. Amy’s lessons were inspiring and fun. The class covered all the bases, from sparking ideas to writing, revising, and selling your essays. Amy’s comments and suggestions really helped me take my writing to the next level. I’d definitely recommend her course.

Kirsten Weir

Amy Paturel’s essay class is sensational. She paces the lectures perfectly and her essay advice and guidance is both practical and insightful. And when it comes to critiques, Amy is a master. Her edits are direct, yet gentle, and she has a knack for asking just the right questions to help you go deeper. Most important, she helps you find the heart of your story so it sells!

Amy Pengra Button
I signed up for Amy’s class because I wanted to focus on essay writing but I wasn’t sure what made a good salable story idea and if I had those stories within me. Through well-organized lesson and assignments, Amy lays out everything I needed to know about generating story ides, writing, editing, pitching and submitting essays. And Amy’s critiques, coupled with the interaction and feedback from other class participants, was invaluable in helping me improve my writing. I walked away with a number of essay ideas and the belief that I had stories to tell. It gave me the jumpstart I needed and since taking the class, I’ve sold essays to The Washington Post, Scary Mommy and Runner’s World (Zelle).
Christine Yu

Amy’s class is fantastic. As an editor, I know how much time and energy it takes to respond the way she does to students’ work. The lesson plans are chock full of practical advice and great examples of writing. Her class taught me more about writing than most of the graduate school courses I took.

Michael Smolinsky

I have been writing for many years in several different forms but had never tried writing essays. Amy’s instruction was clear, well thought out and organized. Her lesson plans and assignments were easy to follow and she also supplied us with excellent essay examples and directed us where we could find more on our own. Her critiques of my work and the other students’ work seemed to be spot on and were delivered honestly but always in a tone that was encouraging. Most importantly, she inspired me to get off my behind and WRITE – the best sign of a good teacher! I would recommend this course to new writers as well as seasoned writers who are looking to sharpen their skills, and especially to anyone with a desire to write but needs a kick start!

Mark Nassief

I’ve been writing essays for a while, but had little idea how to make them salable or where to submit them. Not only did Amy’s guidance help improve my essay drafts, but she taught the class valuable techniques for writing and editing our work to create effective essays that will sell. I’m looking forward to seeing my essays in print!

Ami Spencer