We build community with story; we write to redefine the future. By crafting narratives that resist social pressures, writers dismantle the roles designed for us by systems of oppression. Together, we can create space for characters who shatter monolithic identities. This four-session generative seminar will help you activate words and also highlight ways to challenge the status quo through stories across genres. 

Led by Kristen Millares Young, this course will feature guest appearances by Sonora Jha, Brandon Hobson, Anastacia-Reneé, and Putsata Reang. We will look closely at potent texts that have reshaped paradigms of all kinds, whether it be unmaking the patriarchy with devastating insight and wit, healing modernity with Indigenous imagining, centering the archival wisdom of Black women, or forging queer connection in diaspora. Direct conversations with our guest authors will plunge us into both craft and societal questions at the heart of their transformative work.

Each class will include craft discussions as well as writing sessions with prompts tailored to the texts and approaches of our guest authors. You needn't have a background in activism or identify as an activist to enroll and learn from this course; conversations and exercises will be compelling for anyone looking to shift a reader's thinking through narrative choices. Students will have reading and writing assignments between class sessions, and though ours is not a feedback-based workshop, our month together will culminate in your completion of one new work of prose. 

This course will take place on Zoom on Tuesdays April 9-30 from 7:45 to 9:45 p.m. EST. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterwards. We cannot offer refunds once the course has begun. Please email courses@offassignment.com with any questions.

A limited number of scholarships may be available for this course; please send a brief statement outlining how and why a scholarship would impact your ability to attend to courses@offassignment.com by March 18 and we’ll get back to you by March 25.

*

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses on in-depth writing topics that harness the perspectives and craft tactics of a lead instructor plus celebrated guest lecturers, such that participating writers gain a wealth of input while benefiting from the cohesive leadership of one renowned writer in a particular niche of nonfiction.