I’d like to write a lyric essay about different aspects of Gloucester, Virginia’s culture. I hope to cover subjects like the annual Daffodil Festival, Beaver Dam Park, and the movie theater I patronized in my youth, which closed in recent years. My plan is to write just enough about each essential aspect of Gloucester County to give the reader a glimpse of them, and then compile all of these snapshots into one comprehensive work. My goal is to offer a unique look at the county that can’t be seen through a Wikipedia page.
I hope to find similar works about New Orleans to aid me with my piece’s structure and composition. Seeing what inspires others to write about a place, as well as what within their works speaks to me, will help me decide what to include or leave out in my project. Poetry and creative nonfiction will be particularly useful because a lyric essay combines, as the name suggests, lyrical and essayic writing.