Have you ever read a piece from The Times’ opinion section and thought you could have written that? I’ll teach you how. The best op-eds (or “guest essays” as The Times is calling them now) are timely and surprising, propelling the reader to action or a new way of thinking. We’ll go through the process, lingering most on the lede, the nut graf, and the kicker because those are the elements that make a memorable op-ed. Come with your ideas in a draft, outline, or napkin, and we’ll workshop them.

Liz Robbins has been a journalist for 30+ years, 19 of those at The New York Times covering sports and immigration. She teaches journalism and writing for The School of The New York Times and was an adjunct at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is the author of A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York (2008, Harper), a gripping narrative nonfiction book about the New York City marathon. She wrote it in the Library.

The Writing Life events in 2023 are generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.