Outside the lines- Come write with whatever genre makes you happy-poetry, short fiction, nonfiction. This is a prompt-based class where we can write in any genre, explore many kinds of genres, and open each class with a guided meditation to promote peace of mind and self-esteem while writing. Please note: This class is an online class. To participate, students must have a stable internet connection and a computer or device with a webcam and microphone.

Creative writing is fun! And finding your voice doesn’t have to be hard work. It’s just a matter of letting your words and ideas flow onto the page without tinkering and re-tinkering your way into a creative cul-de-sac. In this class, you’ll write--in the moment--to cues and prompts and then share your work in a safe and positive environment. (You can always opt out.) You can write in whatever form inspires you, from prose (memoir, nonfiction, fiction) to poetry. Class…

Returning writers and new writers with creative nonfiction or memoir writing experience will actively write and revise their memoirs, personal essays, works of nonfiction, and more. We will address larger questions of form and substance--determining the scope of your memoir or nonfiction work, what story to tell, what to leave out--and will continue discussing craft issues such as writing scenes vs. exposition, dealing with time and flashback, character development, and truth and memory. We will continue studying the craft of…

It is not uncommon for fear and trembling to set in when a writer tries to weave together their story. Some sit down and start cold turkey..."He was a dark and stormy knight..." They freeze up. Stop and try to attempt a different scene in another chapter, "She was a little dark storm cloud.." Loop back around. Kill Aunt Esmeralda in chapter 22. Add a rescue Ponski with supernatural powers in chapter 14. Freeze up. Soon the writer inevitably starts…

The Fiction Workshop continues with returning writers and new members with fiction writing experience. Members of the group will actively write and revise original short stories and chapters of novels. All members of the group will have the opportunity to submit material for the workshop. You will have at least two to three opportunities to be critiqued during the session.   Please note: This class is an online class. To participate, students must have a stable internet connection with a…

What's to be done with those poems stuffed in folders or buried in a stack, unfinished and abandoned? If you're like me, those poems contain gems of words and insight, maybe a few well-wrought lines, but you can't seem to keep the energy going or capture the concept. This four-session workshop offers proven revision strategies for structuring, tightening, electrifying, and deepening your poems with richer meaning and authenticity. We'll read poems by our best writers to see how they achieve…

In this workshop, you can explore fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and more. Each meeting, teachers will lead different breakout groups, focused on different genres, with creative exercises, prompts, and readings. You can learn a new genre or sharpen your skills while working on something you are already writing and have ample time to share and comment on each other’s work. Plus, we’ll have a visit or two from our comic book writing teacher to work with visual stories. Come hone…

There has been a profound sense of shift from the ways in which we thought about and experienced life before this global period of pandemic and uncertainty. As we try to find balance in this in-between place that is no longer the world we knew but that isn't clearly yet the world we'll emerge into, what questions are we asking and how do these affect our sense of how we process experience in language, as poets? How can poems help…

In this workshop, creative nonfiction and memoir writers will explore the genre of flash creative nonfiction (between 500 and 1,000 words). We will discuss and discover the many craft elements that make flash nonfiction an engaging, experimental and exciting genre! Every session we will generate and critique our small memoir and nonfiction stories and essays and focus on the unique opportunities that flash gives every creative nonfiction writer. Working in a shorter form allows you to take a fresh look…

This craft class will consist of four seminars structured around four literary novels/novellas read prior to the respective class. We will dissect these novels to learn how the author utilized certain literary tools, and then we’ll apply what we’ve learned to in-class writing exercises meant to supplement our ongoing writing projects. The four books we’ll read are <em>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</em> by Truman Capote, <em>Rebecca</em> by Daphne Du Maurier, <em>Dept. of Speculation</em> by Jenny Offill and <em>Giovanni’s Room</em> by James Baldwin.…