Saturday Morning Writer's Clinic

Local Author Annell Lopez, author of the short story collection I’ll Give You a Reason, will discuss the characteristics of the hermit crab essay at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, April 18, at the Wagner Library, 6646 Riverside Drive, Metairie. This event is free of charge and open to the public.

A hermit crab essay is a creative nonfiction form that adopts an existing, non-literary structure—such as a recipe, syllabus, or rejection letter—as a "shell" to contain personal, often vulnerable content. Coined by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, this form uses the constraint of the borrowed structure to provide distance, focus, and playful, innovative storytelling. Characteristics might include:

Borrowed Structure: Uses everyday forms (e.g., medical forms, instructions, multiple-choice tests) to frame the narrative.

Camouflage & Vulnerability: The structure provides a protective "shell" for tender, personal, or challenging subject matter.

Thematic Alignment: The chosen form often mirrors the theme (e.g., a broken relationship described through an instruction manual).

Implied Narrative: Similar to Hemingway’s "iceberg theory," much of the story remains beneath the surface, implied by the structure. 

Examples of Hermit Crab Essays include rejection letters, how-to guides, lists, or technical formats such as syllabi, recipes or medical reports.

Annell López is the winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the author of the short story collection I’ll Give You a Reason from the Feminist Press. A Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, her work has received support from Tin House and has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, Refinery29 and elsewhere. López received her MFA from the University of New Orleans. She is working on a novel.

For more information regarding this event, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.