All Columns Letter to a Stranger No Equivalent What I Didn’t Say Under the Influence Witching Hour Goodbye to That Place
A penchant for journeys and a fascination with strangers

Upcoming Courses

To be the first to hear about new OA course offerings, subscribe to our education newsletter.

Find FAQs here, or email courses@offassignment.com

 
 

Think Like an Editor: Revising Essays for Publication

Sundays: May 31 - June 21
12 - 2:30 p.m. EST

$420

This course, led by Condé Nast Traveller editor Matt Ortile, offers rare insight into how top magazine editors shape stories from rough cuts to finished pieces, providing the conversations, community, craft, and professional fluency writers need to move their work forward. Students will hear directly from working editors—from The New York Times, Elle, The New Yorker, and Orion—about what they look for on the page, how they approach structural revision, and how essays evolve through multiple rounds of edits. By the end of the course, participants will leave with a stronger, more polished essay, a refined pitch, and a clear understanding of how editorial relationships work—equipped not just to submit their work, but to revise with rigor, confidence, and intention.

Learn more

Finding Your Book (SOLD OUT)

Mondays: June 1 - July 20
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$780

As writers we often hear about “finding your voice.” But what about finding something we don’t have to be or perform, something we can relate to and be in dialogue with, something that can transform us and grow along with us, something that feels like a home we can come back to again and again? What would it take to bring your many ideas and aspects of practice into alignment with a single project? That is what this course is all about—finding your book. This might be the book that only you can write, and it might be the book you’ve been wanting to write all your life.

Learn more

Writing Hybrid Memoir

Mondays: June 8 - 29
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$420

Many of the most powerful memoirs go beyond the author’s own experience, bringing the reader a deeper, more multi-faceted story. Why shouldn’t memoir encompass more than the personal? After all, we’re defined not just by what happened to us, but also what we read, what we obsess over, what we love. Hybrid memoir, or “memoir-plus,” elegantly reflects that multiplicity within the self, while also lending readers the chance to transcend the particulars of one person’s life. 

Learn more

Writing Heartbreak

Mondays: July 6 - 27
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$420

What if heartbreak was a place, in addition to a feeling? What if it was a driving force, a lifestyle, a way of being? In this course, we will explore writing not just about heartbreak, but writing from heartbreak in ways that move beyond the cliché. Through experiments with somatic writing exercises, memory, and weekly readings that  integrate and illuminate heartbreak in surprising structures and ways, students will deepen their craft and writing confidence. We will also examine and challenge what heartbreak can be and look like on the page. 

Learn more

Writing the Short Story

Tuesdays: July 7 - 28
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$420

A few thousand words: That’s all a short story writer has to work with. And yet, the greatest practitioners of the form have built entire worlds, made us fall in love, and stunned us with plot-twists in the span of a single story. This course unpacks how fiction writers are able to master the short form, with special attention to structure, the invisible architecture that makes a story function. Whether you’re a writer of short fiction or a lover of long novels, there’s much to glean from closely studying how a great story is built. By honing your structural x-ray vision, you’ll begin to see how every choice—from a section break to a subtle omission—shapes the whole. 

Learn more

Writing the Book Proposal

Tuesdays: July 28 - August 18
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$420

A book proposal must do the seemingly impossible: Pitch a project that doesn’t fully exist while anchoring it in practical details like structure, audience, and timeline. It must function as sales document, project plan, and creative vision—all at once. How to craft such a thing? How to begin when there are so few examples of book proposals that are publicly accessible? How do you get agents and editors excited about a project that doesn’t yet exist? And how do you do it all while allowing space for the mystery and experimentation that’s crucial to the artistic process?

Learn more

Ethics of Memoir

Mondays: August 3 - 24
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

$450

In the intimacies of all kinds of relationships—families, friendships, loves, breakups, to name just a few—writers often find both their subject and their story. What are the responsibilities towards someone you trust and love? What about the responsibilities for someone you distrust and hate? What about all of the above, all at once? How can a writer, in their work, keep their standards for their art high and the standards for their people fair? This course is both an invitation to discuss the ethics of writing a memoir that includes the lives and stories of other people, as well as a practical exercise in writing and revising memoir pieces.

Learn more

Past Courses

2026

 

2025

 

  • WRITING THE BOOK PROPOSAL with RAKSHA VASUDEVAN
    featuring Elisa Gabbert, Lauren Markham, Noelle Falcis-Math, & Anni Liu

  • WRITING THE BODY with MARGO STEINES
    featuring Sarah Manguso, Krys Malcolm Belc, Porochista Khakpour, & Christina Cooke

  • RETHINKING TRAVEL WRITING with FAITH ADIELE
    featuring Carey Baraka, Bani Amor, Pier Nirandara, & Noo Saro-Wiwa

  • WRITING PICTURE BOOKS with KYO MACLEAR
    featuring Minh Lê, Matthew Burgess, X. Fang, & Jillian Tamaki

  • WRITING AUTOFICTION with AUBE REY LESCURE
    featuring Zinzi Clemmons, Laura van den Berg, Alexander Chee, & Andrew Sean Greer

  • WRITING DESIRE with STEVE ALMOND
    featuring Camille Dungy, Megha Majumdar, Sarah Manguso, & Anthony Doerr

  • THE PRACTICE OF IMAGINATION with RACHEL KHONG
    featuring Shruti Swamy, Ruben Reyes Jr., Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, & Hilary Leichter

2024

 

  • WRITING FOOD with ALI FRANCIS
    featuring Bettina Makalintal, Mayukh Sen, Jaya Saxena, & Alicia Kennedy

  • WRITING THE MODERN LOVE ESSAY with LAVINIA SPALDING
    featuring Susan Yoon, Kevin Renn, Staceyann Chin, & Miya Lee

  • WRITING MOTHERHOOD with RACHEL YODER
    featuring Angela Garbes, Louisa Hall, Sabrina Orah Mark, & Erika Morillo

  • WRITING TRAUMA with MARGO STEINES
    featuring Stacey Ramsower, Athena Dixon, T Kira Māhealani Madden, & Lacy M. Johnson

  • WRITING THIS WARMING WORLD with MEERA SUBRAMANIAN
    featuring Emily Raboteau, Helen Macdonald, Elizabeth Rush, & J. Drew Lanham

 

2023

  • HYBRID MEMOIR with LILLY DANCYGER
    featuring Melissa Febos, Esmé Weijun Wang, Jeannie Vanasco, & Tyrese L. Colemen

  • WRITING THE BODY with MARGO STEINES
    & featuring Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Melissa Febos, Natalie Lima, & Leslie Jamison

2022