Upcoming Courses

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Generating the Personal Essay

Mondays: Jan 6 - Feb 10
6 - 8:30 p.m. EST

$530

The hardest part of writing, often enough, is just getting started. And for those of us who write creative nonfiction, the problem is usually a glut, rather than a lack, of ideas. We essayists can choose to write about exactly everything we’ve ever done, thought, imagined, feared, regretted doing, celebrated not doing, etc. These limitless choices can be paralyzing. And whenever we’re feeling paralyzed, one of the best remedies is to simply reduce our choices. Constrain them. Channel them.

Nonfiction Re-Vision Intensive

March 10 - 13
7 - 9 p.m. EST

$600

When we revise our work, we attempt to see two things at once: the original frame of what we were doing when we started, and a new vision, informed by the way we have changed through the process of making the work. This advanced intensive course is your chance to get a drafted piece revised for publication.

Writing Motherhood

Thursdays: Mar 6 - Apr 3
8 - 10 p.m. EST

$400

How does a writer broach the topic of motherhood—an experience as large as life itself, and as personal as the deepest flesh of our physical selves? How do we write toward the ineffability of maternal love, transformation, rage, sacrifice, and ecstasy? This Masters’ Series course aspires to give you the conversations, community, craft, and courage needed to approach your work about every aspect of motherhood—conception, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and caretaking.

Writing Grief

Saturdays: Apr 5 - May 3
12 - 2 p.m. EST

$400

We’re writing in a time of collective grief. There’s an ongoing health crisis, a deeply divided political climate, an aching planet, and through it all, each of us is moving deeply personal mountains that no one else can see. How do we show up to the page when we don’t want to get out of bed? How do we find language for the loss, the fear, the sadness, the gutpunch, the thing we can’t put down?

Past Courses

2024

• HYBRID MEMOIR
  w/ Lilly Dancyger & featuring Nicole Chung, Elissa Washuta, Jeanna Kadlec, & Chelsea Biondolillo

• NAVIGATING LITERARY PUBLICITY
  w/ Lauren Cerand & featuring Dan Sinykin, Kathleen Schmidt, Sonya Chung, & Andre Banks

• RESEARCH FOR WRITERS
  w/ Julia Cooke & featuring Álvaro Enrigue, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, May Jeong, & Jerry Saltz

• SCRAPPY: HOW TO BUILD AN ALTERNATIVE LITERARY LIFE
  w/ Chloe Caldwell & Courtney Maum, Alex Alberto, M. M. Carrigan, & Lidia Yuknavitch

• WRITING ABOUT FAMILY
  w/ Margo Steines & featuring Stacey Ramsower, Athena Dixon, T Kira Mahealani Madden, & Lacy M. Johnson

• WRITING FOOD
  w/ Ali Francis & featuring Bettina Makalintal, Mayukh Sen, Jaya Saxena, & Alicia Kennedy

• WRITING THE MODERN LOVE ESSAY
  w/ Lavinia Spalding & featuring Susan Yoon, Kevin Renn, Staceyann Chin, & Miya Lee

• WRITING MOTHERHOOD
  w/ Rachel Yoder & featuring Angela Garbes, Louisa Hall, Sabrina Orah Mark, & Erika Morillo

• WRITING TRAUMA
  w/ Margo Steines & featuring Stacey Ramsower, Athena Dixon, T Kira Mahealani Madden, & Lacy M. Johnson

2023

• HYBRID MEMOIR
  w/ Lilly Dancyger & featuring Melissa Febos, Esmé Weijun Wang, Jeannie Vanasco, and Tyrese L. Colemen

• WRITING THE BODY
  w/ Margo Steines & featuring Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Melissa Febos, Natalie Lima, and Leslie Jamison

2022

• HOW TO BEGIN
  w/ Leslie Jamison & Colleen Kinder