The harrowing personal essay—is it worth it?

I began a writing degree one month after my sister was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. At the time, people would exclaim how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to write about the illness. How insensitive, I thought to myself. This is not literary, it’s life.

‘Write what you know’ was the mantra espoused by my writing lecturer. The first genre we were introduced to was the personal essay, and the first assignment we were given was to produce one. The lecturer hoped we’d be inspired by our intense analysis of Joan Didion’s In Bed.