UPCOMING CLASSES (All classes are online.)
January 2021
Putting the Pen to the Page: Drafting Your Novel in One Year (Online class)
Instructor: Kristen-Paige Madonia $1,399* Members | $1,399* Nonmembers Select Tuesdays, 1/5/21 - 8/31/21** | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM *Payment plans will be available to students accepted into this program. Overview: Putting the Pen to the Page is an opportunity for writers to study the craft of creative writing, share and workshop portions of their novel manuscript, provide and receive constructive criticism, and work with a published author at an MFA-level of instruction as they write their way through the…
Find out more »Advanced Fiction (Online course)
Instructor: Sharon Harrigan $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 9:30 am – 10:45 am Requirements: Students are asked to purchase Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy. In this class, we will spend Mondays studying techniques that will make your fiction more engaging, gripping, and vivid. We will discuss selections from Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy, as well as short stories and novel excerpts from Bret Anthony Johnston, Rebecca Makkai, and others. On…
Find out more »Multi-genre course: The Language of Environment (Online course)
Instructor: Erika Howsare $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm “Nature writing” might make you think of Thoreau or John Muir, but it’s obvious that the world has moved beyond the state of idyllic wilderness. We need writing that tries to reckon with our current conditions—finding words for the grief, rage, and yet joy and connection that we feel in the midst of the Anthropocene. This will be a multi-genre…
Find out more »Evening Creative Nonfiction (Online course)
Instructor: Brendan Wolfe $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm In this workshop, we'll critique student writing in addition to considering samples of a few published selections. We’ll consider essays and memoir as a distinctive genre, with the goal of moving from the chin-strokingly philosophical—"What is a true story?" "Is it memoir or mem-wah?"—to the more practical: "How should this story be told?" "How do I convince my readers to…
Find out more »Explorations in Imitation: Using Poetry to Communicate the Uncommunicable (Online course)
Instructor: James Cole $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Thursdays, 1/11/21 – 3/4/21 | 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm The goal of poetry has always been to communicate sensation and emotion through keen deployment of sound, structure, and image. However, the concrete nature of language imposes limits on our ability to share experiences. How does one use noumena (things as they are) to convey phenomenon (things as they appear) in an effective, engaging way? How can poets produce nuance…
Find out more »Daytime Poetry: Addiction, Family, and the Unrecognizable (Online course)
Instructor: Joanna Currey $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1/12/21 – 3/4/21 | 11:00 am - 12:15 pm “I liked Hell, / I liked to go there alone” writes Marie Howe in “Magdalene: The Addict,” a line that seems to come from the psyche of a person both keenly self-aware and utterly emotionally detached. What is addiction, and who suffers from it? How does it affect a person’s life or the lives of those who love them? And…
Find out more »Fiction from Soup to Nuts (Online course)
Instructor: Kristie Smeltzer $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1/12/21 – 3/4/21 | 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm Like a seven-course meal, this class offers a little bit of everything. Class discussions on a variety of writing topics—such as effective beginnings, smooth transitions between scenes/chapters, and how to write better sentences—will sate your appetite. The best part is that what you're craving will help shape the menu: the class offers participants the opportunity to share topics of interest to…
Find out more »Chopped: The Writing Class (Online course)
Instructor: Jody Hobbs Hesler $115 Members | $128 Nonmembers Thursdays, 1/14/21 – 3/4/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Inspired by the TV cooking game show Chopped, this generative writing class will present students with a new "basket" of four "ingredients" each week. "Ingredients" might include objects, people, moods, genres, etc. During our writing time, each writer will not only include all four items, but must "transform" them so that they work together organically. Students may write fiction, nonfiction, or…
Find out more »Engaging Beginnings, Middles, and Endings When Writing for Children & Teens (Online seminar)
Instructor: Kathryn Erskine $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Session One: Sunday, 1/24/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Session Two: Sunday, 1/31/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Whether you’re writing a picture book, chapter book or novel for young readers, what are the elements you need for a great beginning? How much is enough to introduce the story and what is too much information? How do you manage the murky, meandering middle without getting sidetracked by beautifully written scenes…
Find out more »February 2021
Snowed Under a Blizzard of Unfinished Stories? (Online seminar)
Instructor: BettyJoyce Nash $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Weekend One: Saturday & Sunday, 2/20/21 & 2/21/21 | 10:00 am – 11:15 am Weekend Two: Saturday & Sunday, 2/27/21 & 2/28/21 | 10:00 am – 11:15 am How many days does a blizzard last? That's an unanswerable question, but this short story "blizzard" will span four days. Bring your blanket, bring your hot chocolate and bring a short story you want to polish for publication. We’ll examine point of view, character development, and story arc, but we’ll…
Find out more »