Mon, April 27

A 4-week online workshop. Looking at stories from writers such as Kelly Link and A.S. Byatt, we will consider how the strange can get us closer to the truth. Plan to draft two stories and discuss one of those stories with the class.

Mon, May 4

Draft a short story in four weeks.  Each week’s session in this asynchronous online class combines generative writing to help cultivate ideas for plot and character with workshop feedback to assist in developing story arc, structure, and sensory details. 

Sat, May 16 from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

The lyric essay is a form which allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry; it celebrates mixing genres. In this workshop, we will write a series of fragments, and then stitch them together into short essays. Call it a collage, a mosaic or a quilt; you will leave the workshop with a sense of how small pieces of writing can grow into essays.

Thu, May 28 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The workshop covers crafting stories using the five-part story arc, delivering your best performance onstage, and a treasure trove of secrets to this satisfying artform.

Sat, June 6 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Begin generating the first draft of a memoir or collection of personal essays. John D’Agata describes memoir as “an agitation of memory,” which suggests memory-based writing as not just the expression of memory but volatile, vital consideration of memory. Participants will look at elements of craft, including point of view and detail, and examine various writing processes. They'll also look at examples of prose memoir in which the writer uses the poet’s tools of meditation, dream, and lyricism, and then…

Sat, June 13 from 10:00 am - 11:30 am

Do you have a nonfiction story or essay that struggles to mold to a traditional structure? Sometimes the most personal stories or essays do not want to follow a linear trajectory. Collage and braided forms of creative non-fiction rely instead on fragmentation, silence and resonance to build suspense and/or complex thinking. In defense of disruption and silence, Louise Gluck reflects that “in the broken thing, human agency is oddly implied: breakage, whatever its cause, is the dark complement to the…

Sat, June 27 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Zoom webinar: Fear is a natural part of the creative process. Instead of fighting it, work with it. Through stories, mindfulness, and free-writing, you will discover simple, realistic ways to face your fear, get to know it, and use it to propel your writing, rather than hinder it.