Michelle Nijhuis discussed the art of the science essay for NSWA members and guests on Oct. 19 at Hugo House.

In this evening lecture, Nijhuis talked about how to recognize essay ideas, how to report for the essay form, and how to organize your ideas before you write. She also discussed the ethics of personal essays, how and where to get your essays published, and how essay-writing skills can be applied to stories of all kinds, from longform narrative to social media posts.

Michelle Nijhuis is the co-editor of The Science Writers’ Handbook and the author of the Science Writers’ Essay Handbook. She is a regular contributor to National Geographic, The New Yorker’s science-and-tech blog Elements, and other publications, and she is also the longtime editor of the essay section of High Country News, an award-winning magazine known for its coverage of science and natural resource issues in the American West. Her reported essays and feature stories—which examine subjects ranging from caviar smuggling in the Ozarks to life off the electrical grid to the possibility that Bilbo Baggins is a girl—have been recognized with several national awards and included in three Best American anthologies. You can learn more about her at michellenijhuis.com.

A live-tweet of the event is available below: