online class Spring 2023 Writing Classes
Creative Nonfiction I
How do I decide what to write about? What if my memory is flawed? How much research do I need to do? What details are the most important? What’s the
Loading view.
Events, Classes, and Seminars
Our events, classes, and seminars bring the community together to hear, learn, and discuss the most compelling issues and ideas of our day. We hope you will join us in our downtown Literary Arts space, online, and at partnering venues across Portland and Oregon.
online class Spring 2023 Writing Classes
Weaving Small Fragments: The Lyric Essay
The lyric essay is a form that allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry,
In-person Spring 2023 Writing Classes
Prompted: A Get-Writing Class
Sometimes we become so focused on productivity or “doing it right” that we stifle our creativity. In this class we’ll focus on one of the hardest parts of writing: writing.
Free Events Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, "The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though many of the activities and discussions orbit or are inflected by recovery themes (Akbar has been in active recovery for eight years), participants are not
In-person Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Autofiction Weekend Intensive
During this weekend autofiction intensive, we will take a deep dive into the unique art of autofiction. Autofiction combines the disciplines of autobiography and fiction. It can be written like
online class Summer 2023 Writing Classes
The Visual Essay: Experiments in Form
Some stories call for a breaking of boundaries, others for a union of text and image or visual form. In this generative course, we’ll experiment with different ways of looking
In-person Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Creative Clarity, Focus and Momentum
In this supportive workshop, you will learn creative process skills for sticking with a writing project from initial idea to completion. If you dream of writing that novel or finishing
In-person Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Dreamscapes of Body and Lineage: A Generative Workshop
In this class we will delve into the complexities of knowing ourselves when our histories and lineages are fragmented. We will explore how we can create a sense of unity
online class Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Experiments in Creativity
If you allow them to, ideas for art and writing can come from absolutely anywhere. This creative generation class will put that theory to the test, through a series of
Free Events online class Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, "The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though
In-person Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Get Writing: Unblocking Writer’s Block
Sometimes we become so focused on productivity or “doing it right” that we stifle our creativity. In this class we’ll focus on one of the hardest parts of writing: writing.
In-person Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Writing in the Child’s Voice
This course will take a close look how to effectively use the child narrator when writing personal narrative or fiction. Using textual examples, we’ll look at what kinds of situations
Free Events online class Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, "The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though
Fall 2023 Memoir online class Writing Classes
Six Month Memoir Intensive
This six-month class is designed for memoirists in the early to mid stages of their memoir writing journey looking for consistent, in-depth feedback on their work. We will study four
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
HAVING AND KEEPING A BEAUTIFUL MIND
This class, in the words of Nikki Finney, is about having and keeping a beautiful mind -- which is essential to building an art practice that can change or deepen
Memoir online class Summer 2023 Writing Classes
Fragments and Memoir
In this generative workshop, we’ll look at examples by writers who use fragments in various ways, and try inventive writing exercises and strategies for creating a memoir from fragments. Fragments
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
The Self-Doubting Writer: Releasing Anxiety
Writing can be emotionally exhausting. It can have a substantial physiological effect on the body: as you imagine an emotional scene, your body will sometimes go through the experience as
Fall 2023 Novel online class Writing Classes
Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Wednesday
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels
Fall 2023 Novel online class Writing Classes
Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Thursday
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels
Fall 2023 Memoir online class Writing Classes
When Memory is Fractured: Using Fragments to Craft Memoir
As many of us now know, traumatic memory doesn’t always function linearly. There is no clear beginning or end, as trauma literally relives itself in the brain. Because of this,
Fall 2023 In-person Writing Classes
Autofiction Weekend Intensive
During this weekend autofiction intensive, we will take a deep dive into the unique art of autofiction. Autofiction combines the disciplines of autobiography and fiction. It can be written like
For Bipoc Writers online class Writing Classes
BIPOC Writing Workshop: September
Searching for a space to create new work with fellow BIPOC writers? This two-hour workshop meets on Zoom. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and
Free Events online class Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, "The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though many of the activities and discussions orbit or are inflected by recovery themes (Akbar has been in active recovery for eight years), participants are not
Fall 2023 In-person Writing Classes
Pushing Through: Carrying Your Manuscript Over the Finish Line
This six-week course is designed to help students finish a draft of a fiction or non-fiction manuscript. We'll read craft essays about drafting a book, set aside time each week
Fall 2023 In-person Writing Classes
EVERYBODY DOES IT: WRITING ABOUT WORK
In his 1974 book, Working, Studs Terkel begins by saying, “This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body.”
Writing Classes Youth Events
Stranger than Fiction: Stepping into Speculation (ages 14-18)
Explore what it means to be alive in our current world through the weird and expansive genre of speculative fiction that gives us a way to look at social and/or
Fall 2023 In-person Writing Classes
Where Do I Go From Here: Writing the Novel
This weekend intensive is designed for writers who have written at least the first two chapters of a novel. Limited to 8 students, each participant will have their work discussed,
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
Grief and the Lyric Essay
Throughout history, writers have used lyrical techniques to access states of consciousness we associate with grief. Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. The goal of
For Bipoc Writers online class Writing Classes
BIPOC Writing Workshop: October
Searching for a space to create new work with fellow BIPOC writers? This two-hour workshop meets on Zoom. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and
Fall 2023 online class Portland Book Festival Writing Class
The Art of the Novella
The novella has its own parameters, intricacies, and rewards. Together we’ll look at the novella’s histories, jewels, origins, and how its varying structures still feed into the overall design. Students can use this experience to either enhance their own novellas, or learn more about this fascinating literary form.
online class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Writing About Animals
How and why do we write about non-human animals, and how might we write about them in new ways? Through discussion, short readings, and writing exercises, we will explore varying approaches to writing about other species in our time of mass extinction and global warming. No experience necessary.
Fall 2023 online class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
STYLE AND THE SENTENCE
When it comes to writing short fiction and novels, the ideas we’ve absorbed about narrativizing from our outside lives often don’t apply. Even the most thrilling story, if written without a reverence to form, loses its audience quickly. In this seminar on literary style, we’ll study the most minute of authorial choices, coming to understand how subjectivity comes through on the subconscious level of the sentence.
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
The Lyric Essay: Braiding the World
The lyric essay is a form that allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry, a bit of imagination; it celebrates mixing genres. In this workshop, we will write a series of fragments in response to prompts, and then braid
Fall 2023 online class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Writing Deliciously: The Poetry of Food Writing
Together, we will delve into the intimate sensory memories that food evokes. How can writing about food open up evocative spaces of comfort, family, memory, shared rituals, and desires? How can writing through and about food radically strengthen our communities and open up our creative craft?
Fall 2023 In-person Poetry Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Revising Poems
Bring one or two of your most promising poems-in-process, and we will work through ways to make them more like what they want to be. This will not be a critique session, but a workshop in generative revision.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Young Adult Youth Events
Writing Poetry From Art (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we’ll discover parallels between visual and written art, and use pieces in the museum collection to inspire poetry.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Young Adult Youth Events
Ekphrastic Worldbuilding (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we'll learn how to build a fictional world and add texture to imaginary settings.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Young Adult Youth Events
Narrative and Social Justice Storytelling (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we’ll learn journalistic storytelling techniques and explore how they can be used to cover social justice stories.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
The Unique Art of Autofiction
This is a three-hour, one-day intensive discussion on the unique genre of autofiction. This course will provide insight into the many nuances of autofiction, or autobiographical fiction. This “genre” involves writing that is based on real life experiences, but also utilizes fictional literary devices, making it a very unique form.
online class Poetry Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Radical Revision
Let's spend a few hours together exploring the practice of revision! Too often revision is just a fancy word for copy-editing. But it can be more. In this three hour class we will explore different revision exercises using a recent poem and how we can break old revision habits and constructs.
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
Recharge Your Writing Life: Experiments & Strategies
Equal parts strategy, community, generative writing, and experiment, this class will help writers spark curiosity and deepen self-knowledge while crafting artistic habits that nourish. A good fit for writers who want to reimagine their creative life. We’ll discuss methods for working through blocks and rejection, rituals that refill the well, and ways to make time
Fall 2023 In-person Writing Classes
Finders, Keepers: Reclaiming Agency through Erasure and Collage
The hybrid genre of erasure and collage often exists between and because of two different mediums: text and image. Through obscuring a pre-existing text using various methods, an original work is created. Like erasure and collage, we as writers and community members exist between and because of various factors and people. What we amplify in
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
Essaying the Essay
While we may know of essays as personal narratives crafted with creative storytelling techniques, essay as a verb means an attempt. In this six-week series, we’ll explore a variety of essays under the creative nonfiction umbrella in an attempt to expand our entry points to writing and in an attempt to build community. Our evenings
Fall 2023 online class Writing Classes
Speaking Beyond the Self in Poetry
“Your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone’s.” -Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet’s Companion What we know in our personal worlds contain essential truths of the larger world. The challenge we face as poets is how to transform our lived experiences–creatively and imaginatively–into art that can be
online class Winter 2024 Writing Classes
Six Month Short Story Intensive
This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of six months. Participants should have experience writing stories
Newsletter Signup
Follow
Contact
Literary Arts925 SW Washington Street
Portland, Oregon 97205
- 503.227.2583
- 503.241.4256 fax
- la@literary-arts.org
Literary Arts, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Copyright © 2023 Literary Arts
Made by Needmore Designs
Literary Arts appreciates the continuing support of…
