Open to All
These courses are ideal for writers of all experience levels—beginner through advanced. If this course has a workshopping component, no prior workshopping experience is expected.
Upcoming Courses
December Courses
Call of the Weird: Poetry and Nature
with Caitlin Scarano
Turn your poetic lens towards the outdoors, where we'll put to verse everything strange and wonderful about the natural world.
Creative Nonfiction: The Art of Telling True Stories
with Nicole Hardy
How do you tell your stories beautifully and authentically? Learn the fundamentals of creative nonfiction with Nicole Hardy.
Publication-Ready Prose Poetry
with Rosemary Tantra Bensko
Elevate your unique voice as a prose poet, and catch the attention of top literary magazines and anthologies.
Show and Tell: How to Write Captivating Memoir and Nonfiction
with Brad Wetzler
Your true story of healing or transformation can captivate and empower your readers. Learn how to balance showing the vivid details of your own journey with telling the broader themes for readers to apply in their own lives.
Creative Nonfiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Personal Essay
Simple Winter Writing Circles
with Susan Vespoli
Write your way to the finish line of 2024: let go of and say goodbye to a momentous year, honor the changes in yourself and the world, and set your intentions for a new chapter.
Writing the Memoir-in-Essays
with Margo Steines
Learn how to tell your story through the memoir-in-essays, a form that allows writers to interweave the facts of their lives in interesting and evocative ways.
Filling the Blank Page: How to Move through Creative Blocks
with Shelby Hinte
Discover proven techniques to get writing! Find the root causes of mental blocks, and learn practical tools to lead a consistently creative life.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Live Workshop, Poetry
Flash Forward: A Short Nonfiction Workshop
with Anna Scotti
Welcome the new year with your most inspired flash nonfiction. Craft concise, emotionally resonant essays of up to 700 words.
January Courses
A Writerly Life: Develop a Writing Routine that Works for You
with Shelby Hinte
What does a writer's life look like? Build a productive writing habit in this course for writers of all backgrounds.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
In Brief: Explorations in Short Story Forms
with Sandra Novack
Explore the intricate world of short prose forms. Experiment with story forms from one-syllable micros to full-length short stories, and complete six new story drafts.
Write Your Novel! The Workshop With Jack
with Jack Smith
Get a good start on a novel in just ten weeks, or revise a novel you’ve already written. Free your imagination, move steadily ahead and count the pages!
Both Fish and Fowl: The Prose Poem
with Anna Scotti
A successful prose poem reads like a magic trick. Learn how to wield the powers of poetry in the context of prose in this comprehensive prose poetry course.
The Magic of Flash Nonfiction
with Tamara Dean
Tell your stories quickly and stylishly in this short form creative nonfiction workshop, where you'll come away honing the magic of flash nonfiction.
Toying with the Truth: Writing the Personal Essay
with Shelby Hinte
Experiment with creative nonfiction forms and find the best way to tell your personal stories. Write a short piece each week, and choose one draft to polish.
The Craft of Poetry
with Jonathan J.G. McClure
Poetry is alive and well. Contemporary poets can be touching, terrifying, and laugh-out-loud funny. Join us for an exploration of writing and reading poems.
Write Your World: Express Your Creativity through Article Writing, Blogging, and Essays
with Rudri Patel
Want to write your world, your way? Join us for this six-week program on article writing, blogging, and essays.
Writing Autobiographical Fiction
with Jack Smith
Learn to depart from "what really happened," and write compelling fiction from your own life experiences.
Creative Nonfiction and the Personal Essay
with Gretchen Clark
Gretchen Clark pick axes her way into the volcanic marriage of real life and fiction. Weekly writing with incisive feedback.
Observing What’s Vivid in Prose and Poetry
with Marc Olmsted
Learn how to spotlight beauty through fresh, vivid, and surprising language, in this four week mindfulness writing course.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story, Stage and Broadcast
The Watching Eye/Thinking Mind: Writing Flash Fiction
with Barbara Henning
In this ten-week workshop with poet and novelist Barbara Henning, write tiny fictions while experimenting with first and third person points of view and analyzing how point of view affects the craft of fiction writing. Barbara will provide practical instruction and assignments, suggestions for revision, and lectures and and articles.
Writing the Memoir-in-Essays: 6-Week Workshop
with Margo Steines
Discover the rich hybrid form of the memoir-in-essays, and write full essays as you move toward a completed manuscript.
Lapses, Flashes, and Fragments: How to Write Through Challenging Memories
with Laura Cathcart Robbins
Shape your difficult life experiences into a compelling memoir. Discover how to find and share your story's pivotal moments with power and authenticity.
The First Fifty Pages of the Novel
with Sandra Novack
The first 50 pages sets up plot, characters, and voice, and it lays the groundwork for your book's overall structure and success. Receive critical, supportive feedback on your book's start from novelist Sandra Novack.
Write Again: Returning to the Page
with Amanda Oliver
Rediscover your writing and voice. Write new pieces, connect in community, and leave with a clear path forward.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story
February Courses
Crafting the Poetry Novel for Young Adults
with Kelly Bingham
Even if you’ve never written poetry before, you can begin the rewarding process of crafting a poetry novel for Young Adults. Is there a market for novels written in verse? Are they well received? Yes, there is, and yes, they are!
Get Your Book Noticed: Writing Loglines That Sell
with Jeff Lyons
Your logline helps you query agents, market your book, and figure out the story itself. Hone your logline and set your book up for success in this Zoom workshop.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story, Stage and Broadcast
The Deep Dive: Poem As Self-Discovery
with Meghan Sterling
Through poetry, we can access our deepest truths. Use the poem as a roadmap to self-discovery in this 6-week poetic deep-dive.
Writing the (Modern) Love Essay
with Paz Pardo
How do you distill the complexity of (modern) love into language? Learn how in this workshop, where you'll transform your lived experience of romance into an essay.
Long Story Short: Compressing Life into Meaningful Micro Memoirs
with Gretchen Clark
Distill the spirit of your story in fewer than 500 words. Learn to craft compelling short nonfiction, and write and revise five new pieces of micro memoir.
The Healing Power of Poetry
with Joy Roulier Sawyer
Poetry heals. Journey alongside several poets whose works resonate with a variety of healing themes, and learn how to use craft elements as healing tools.
In Focus: Writing Short Stories
with Elwin Cotman
Discover the power and impact of the short story form. Explore new ideas freely and begin up to 6 new short stories.
Poetry Workshop: Bring Your Poems to Life
with Rosemary Tantra Bensko
Join us for this workshop on creating powerful poems—poems that are clear and organized, fresh and moving, full of life.
Write Your Novel in 16 Weeks!
with Briana Una McGuckin
In this generative novel writing course, we'll go from writing a strong beginning to writing "The End" on your novel's first draft.
Shape Your Stories: Write Five Styles of the Personal Essay
with Susan Pohlman
Craft powerful nonfiction essays! By exploring five exciting essay forms, you'll learn to bring the stories of your life alive on the page.
March Courses
Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Use Story and Premise Development for Writing Success
with Jeff Lyons
The premise line is the only reliable tool that can tell you, BEFORE you start writing, whether or not your story will “work.” In this class participants will learn how to master the process of premise line development—the essential first step in any book or screenplay’s development process.
These Fragments: From Journal Pages to Personal Essays
with Rudri Patel
Learn to harvest the raw creativity of journaling into inspired, publication-worthy personal essays.
Creative Nonfiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Personal Essay
Writing with Consistency and Courage
with Tamara Dean
What makes a successful writer? It's not talent, craft, or even the right connections—it's consistency and courage.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Live Workshop, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Nature’s Muse: Finding Inspiration through the Changing Seasons
with Elizabeth Winder
Galvanize your creative practice by deepening your connection to the natural world. Discover inspiration in the changing seasons, and generate fresh new writing.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Get It Done: Fast-Draft Your Novel in 13 Weeks
with Troy Wilderson
Write a complete first draft of your novel in this 13-week intensive, where you'll learn everything you need to write a successful story.
The Lyric Essay
with Gretchen Clark
Explore non-traditional and imaginative ways to tell your stories with this ten-week writing course online. Creative nonfiction teacher Gretchen Clark provides detailed feedback on weekly writing assignments that emphasize creative freedom.
April Courses
30 Poems in 30 Days
with Ollie Schminkey
This National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), build community and get feedback on your work while writing a poem every day.
Story Lab: The Story-Subplot Connection
with Jeff Lyons
Subplots are key to maintaining narrative pace and tension in a story. Drive your story forward with this deep dive into the elements of good storytelling.
Hived Like Honey in Your Head: The Art and Craft of Writing Confessional Poetry
with Meghan Sterling
Discover the power and intimacy of confessional poetry, and unlock your authentic voice.
Plot Your Novel
with Jack Smith
Over eight weeks, you'll develop a solid basis in the fictional elements—protagonist, setting, secondary characters, point of view, plot, and theme—while you develop the outline of your novel. You'll receive feedback at all stages from your fellow writers and your instructor.
June Courses
The Body and Soul of Your Memoir: Shape, Focus, and Write Your Memoir
with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Unearth your memoir's soul (its main focus and calling) and body (its organization and structure) as you write toward a completed draft.
The Chronology of Mind: From Journal to Poem or Prose
with Barbara Henning
Gather material through writing and experimenting with journaling, researching and taking notes to develop into poems or prose works.
Unscheduled Courses
*Private Class | The Craft of Poetry
with Jonathan J.G. McClure
Poetry is alive and well. Contemporary poets can be touching, terrifying, and laugh-out-loud funny. Join us for an exploration of writing and reading poems.
*Private Class | The Literary Essay
with Jonathan J.G. McClure
Explore the literary essay - from the conventional to the experimental, the journalistic to essays in verse - while writing and workshopping your own.
*Private Class | Writing with Tarot
with Sandra Novack
Jump-start your creative juices, and explore a world of divination, symbolism, and imagery right at your fingertips: learn short story and novel writing through Tarot.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
16-Week Novel Writing Intensive
with Rosemary Tantra Bensko
Turn your novel writing dream into reality. Get in-depth support tailored to you and your novel, and submit up to 5,000 words each week for detailed feedback.
Ambient Grief: Writing the Alteration
with Jacinda Townsend
How do we write about moments of painful transition, or grief that the world doesn't recognize as grief? Turn ambient pain into powerful words in this transformational personal essay workshop.
Beginner’s Mind: A Mindful Approach to Personal Essays
with Susan Barr-Toman
Write true and meaningful personal essays with the tools of mindfulness. We'll discover new insights in our work as we center ourselves, confront our inner critics, and write mindfully.
Character is the Key: Unlock Your Best Stories
with Jessie Roy
If you want to tell a good story, you need to write good characters. Learn how to unlock your best stories in this one-day character development workshop.
Cheap Shots: Writing Shoestring Budget Movies
with Malcolm Pelles
Pull yourself up by your shoestrings! Complete a short film script that you can later produce on a micro-budget.
Comics for People Who Can’t Draw!
with Aubrey Hirsch
Can't draw? No problem! In this workshop, learn how to tell complete stories in publication-ready comics, no matter your artistic background.
Comics for People Who Can’t Draw!: The One-Day Workshop
with Aubrey Hirsch
Comic strip artists rely much more on creativity than on artistic skill. In this workshop, you'll learn all the tools you need to make fun and engaging comic strips—even if your drawing level is "stick figures."
Death Riding Shotgun: How Awareness of Our Mortality Impacts Poetry
with Lisa C. Taylor
How can your own mortality inform your work? In this 6-week course, you'll use death to inspire and motivate your poetry writing.
Dread and Desire: Gothic Fiction Techniques to Lure and Horrify Your Readers
with Briana Una McGuckin
This Halloween, learn how to write eerie, haunting moods in this comprehensive course on Gothic writing techniques.
Even Smaller: Adventures in Short-form Writing
with Tina Barry
Less is more in this bite-sized writing class, where you'll learn how to tell complete stories under the tightest word counts.
Finding Confidence and Motivation in Your Writing
with Sarah Aronson
Liberate yourself from imposter syndrome and the inner critic, and discover confidence in every stage of the writing process.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Live Workshop, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story
Finding Confidence in the Braided Essay: A Craft and Empowerment Workshop for Literary Nonfiction
with Margo Steines
Weaving your story with facts and research can help you craft a stronger essay. Tell your story with confidence in this empowering essay writing course.
Finding Inspiration in Dreams
with Amy Bonnaffons
Our dreams are fertile fields of inspiration, meaning, and creativity. Learn how to use your dreams as doorways to future writing.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Free Event: A Poetry Reading With Ollie Schminkey and Zach Goldberg
with Ollie Schminkey
Join us for a free reading with Ollie Schminkey and Zach Goldberg. Ollie will be reading poems from their recently published collection Where I Dry the Flowers, and Zach will be reading from his recently published collection I'd Rather Be Destroyed.The reading will conclude with a Q&A with both poets.
From Memory: Writing Fiction or Memoir from Lived Experience
with Chin-Sun Lee
In this class, you'll use a nearly infinite resource—your own memory—to craft compelling fiction or nonfiction stories.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story
From the Source: Journaling for Self-Knowledge and Creativity
with Amy Bonnaffons
Journal to discover yourself, find a wellspring of creativity, and produce publication-ready pieces.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story, Stage and Broadcast
From Writing Circle to Poems in 6 Contemporary Forms
with Susan Vespoli
From the sonnet to the villanelle, turn your journal entries into formal poetry in this 6 week writing circle workshop.
Get Back Into Writing
with Amanda Oliver
Learn how to pick your writing back up—and stick with it.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Live Workshop, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Get That Novel Started: A Two-Week Writing Workshop
with Donna Levin
Take the plunge! Put your ideas to paper, write and share the opening pages of your novel, and create a plan for writing a full first draft.
How to Start a Podcast
with Cara Stevens
Share your voice with the world! Learn everything you need to plan, record, and share your first podcast episode and beyond.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Live Workshop, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story, Stage and Broadcast
How to Write a Novel Query Letter (And Survive the Query Trenches, Too!)
with Briana Una McGuckin
Get your novel noticed by agents. Discover the ins and outs of the querying process, and write and revise the best query letter for your manuscript.
Let It Rip: The Art of Writing Fiery Prose
with Giulietta Nardone
You'll write prose that gets folks so hot and bothered they won't be able to put it down, even if it isn't about sex.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story
Long Night’s Journey into Day: Writing Poetry Through and About Serious Illness
with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Poetry can help us integrate and learn from our experiences as patients, survivors, and/or caregivers. Join a supportive community, explore poetic and healing traditions, and spark powerful poems into being.
Make Art/Poetry in the Face of Change
with Susan Vespoli
In a time of change, uncertainty, and shift, we need the art of poetry more than ever. For the next 3 weeks, we'll write poetry that connects us to each other and helps us witness change.
New Year, Novel Draft: Start the Year Off Right!
with Paz Pardo
Get one-to-one feedback on up to 50,000 words of a draft, write or revise 12,000 more, and set yourself up to have a polished draft in the new year.
Onward: Writing the Novel-in-Process
with Sandra Novack
So now that you have your opening novel pages, what next? Get detailed, constructive feedback on your work-in-progress, wherever you're at in writing it.
Ordinary to Extraordinary: Turning Everyday Experiences into Poetry
with Tina Barry
No experience is too small or mundane to serve as a foundation for extraordinary poetry and short fiction.
Penning Passion: Finish the First Draft of your Romance Novel in Ten Weeks
with Jeanne De Vita
In this comprehensive class, you'll learn the ropes of romance writing and finish a first draft of your romance novel.
Plot Your Novel with the Three-Act Structure
with Denise Santomauro
The 3 act structure gives us the scaffolding we can hang our stories off of. Come away from this class with a fully plotted novel and a plan to write it.
Plumbing the Past: Turning Life Experience into Poetry, Flash and Creative Non-Fiction
with Tina Barry
Dig deep into personal ritual while studying narrative poets, short fiction and non-fiction authors, and food writers.
Poems of All Sizes: Haiku, Tanka, and Japanese Poetic Forms
with Miho Kinnas
Explore the history and poetics of Japanese poetry forms, and write haiku, tanka, renga, haiga, and linked verse poetry.
Poetic Prose: The Prose Poem
with Barbara Henning
Explore the border between prose poetry and flash fiction. For writers of fiction, poetry, essay and memoir.
Poetry as Sacred Attention
with Nadia Colburn
Poetry asks us to slow down, listen, and pay attention. In this meditative workshop, we'll open ourselves to the beauty and mystery of poetry.
Radical Revision: Get Your Poems Published
with Caitlin Scarano
Radically reimagine your poems, by transforming your revision process. Ideal for poets working toward publication.
Rapid Story Development: A Master Plan for Building Stories That Work
with Jeff Lyons
In this 10 week story writing class, Jeff Lyons pairs the Enneagram with story development techniques to revolutionize your writing practice.
Simple Summer Writing Circles
with Susan Vespoli
Sail through the summer and survive the heat with these chill writing circles, where you'll laugh, vent, and honor the season in poetry.
Sing the Body Electric: Poetry of the Body
with Andrea Jurjević
The human body is a continuous source of inspiration for poetry. Embody the poetic in this electric workshop.
Six Flash Essays in Six Weeks
with Rudri Patel
Tell the stories of your life in 1,000 words or less in this generative flash essays workshop.
Six Flash Stories in Six Weeks
with Amy Bonnaffons
Pack the maximum punch in the fewest words! Learn the craft of flash fiction writing, and complete six flash stories.
Suspense Sells! Power Up Your Writing With Conflict, Tension and Emotion
with Giulietta Nardone
Inject suspense into your stories to keep readers turning pages. For writers of all kinds of fiction: thrillers, mysteries, romance, humor, literary and memoir. A four week class with Giulietta Nardone.
Tales From The Memory Palace: 6 to 250 Word Memoirs
with Giulietta Nardone
If you want to be an in demand storyteller in the digital age, you need to get in, get out and get going. In this "short" four-week memoir writing adventure, you'll learn to scope out, swoop down and snatch up important memories from your life then speed write them into miniature masterpieces.
Telling the Stories Your Body Holds: Writing and Shaping Strong Personal Essays
with Sarah Herrington
Where do essays come from? In this course, they come from the body. Learn how to start—and finish—powerful essays that begin inside the self.
Telling Truth: A Poetry Workshop
with Ollie Schminkey
Learn how to tell your story and write a mini chapbook of poems in this truth-driven poetry workshop.
The Cabin In The (Virtual) Woods: Writing Horror Comedy
with Giulietta Nardone
The line between horror and comedy is a lot thinner than you think. In this class, make your readers laugh in one sentence and cower in the next.
The Checklist: Perfect Your Novel’s Opening Pages
with Carla Damron
Nail your opening pages! Apply the 11 core elements your novel opening must get right, and hook readers and agents into your story.
The Heart Remembers: Writing About Loss
with Charlotte Maya
How can we organize grief and loss into language? Honor your feelings and write moving essays in this heart-centered creative nonfiction class.
The Literary Essay
with Jonathan J.G. McClure
Explore the literary essay - from the conventional to the experimental, the journalistic to essays in verse - while writing and workshopping your own.
The Lyric Essay: Invitation to Play
with Elizabeth Winder
Create dynamic, genre-bending works of musical prose in this playful and exploratory lyric essay workshop.
The Poetry of Play
with Joy Roulier Sawyer
Get playful in your poetry in this fun-focused workshop, where we'll experiment our ways into new and delightful poems.
The Spirituality of Poetry
with Joy Roulier Sawyer
Let the spirit of language move through you. In this 6 week course, we will study, write, and share poetry about the sacredness of human experience.
The Surprising Sentence: Honing Your Prose Style
with Jessie Roy
Great sentences stack up into great stories. Learn how to hone your style and voice at the most basic unit of writing, the sentence, in this workshop.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Live Workshop, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Thirty Tiny Stories In Thirty Days
with Giulietta Nardone
Discover the exciting possibilities of micro stories, and write a 6- to 250-word story every day for 30 days.
Tiny and True: Creating Flash Essays with Mindfulness
with Susan Barr-Toman
How do you tell the full truth in under 1,000 words? Learn the art of flash essays and write nuggets of wisdom in this tiny essay class.
Warp and Weft: Weaving Free Verse Poetry from Life
with Anna Scotti
Weave everyday events into deftly-written free verse poems in this generative, creativity-centered poetry workshop.
Where the Diary Ends and the Essay Begins
with Shelby Hinte
Start a diary practice and turn it into a mode of writing personal essays in this generative journaling workshop.
Word Witch: Exploring the Strange Magic of Embodiment
with Erica Anzalone
Infuse your writing with the weird and wonderful: discover the transformative power of embodiment through the archetype of the witch.
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Personal Essay, Poetry, Short Story
Write into Mystery: Writing Flash Memoir on Wonder and the Unexplained
with Joanna Penn Cooper
We often encounter wonder, mystery, and the unexplained in our everyday lives. Turn those experiences into flash essays in this community-centered course.
Write Your Memoir in 12 Weeks
with Blaise Allysen Kearsley
Writing a full memoir takes energy, momentum, and moral support. Find all three in this memoir writing intensive.
Write Your Picture Book!
with Kelly Bingham
Picture books have changed greatly over the last few decades, and the market is wide open for fresh ideas. Join us in this six-week intensive where we’ll take that idea of yours and turn it into a manuscript!
Writing Chronic Illness
with Margo Steines
Creative nonfiction offers a container for the sharing and exploration of illness. Tell the story of your body in this healing-oriented workshop.
Creative Nonfiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Personal Essay
Writing Circle Workshop: A Focus on Six Contemporary Poets
with Susan Vespoli
By studying the poems of Mary Oliver, Diane Seuss, Matthew Olzmann, and Patricia Smith, and more, write stunning poetry in this generative writing circle workshop.
Writing Circle Workshop: Moving Toward Creativity & Light
with Susan Vespoli
Connect with other writers, spark your creativity, and write light-filled poems in this writing circle workshop.
Writing Mindfulness: Sensual World/Poetry Mind
with Marc Olmsted
A four-week class, melding the language mind with the sensual: How to turn detailed observation into a poem. With Marc Olmsted.
Writing Our Grief: How to Channel Loss into Creative Expression
with Rudri Patel
Writing about grief is a powerful healing tool. Turn pain into power in this personal essay course, with instructor Rudri Patel.
Creative Nonfiction, Lifestyle and Wellness, Memoir, Personal Essay
Writing Paranormal Flash Fiction: Adventures With Angels, Spirits and Ghosts
with Giulietta Nardone
Create captivating stories about characters who live by rules different than our own. A fun, supportive foray into imaginative fiction, with an eye to publication.
Writing the Body: A Nonfiction Craft Seminar
with Margo Steines
The weird and wild body is a rich site of exploration in creative nonfiction. Explore the questions, stories, and lessons your body holds in this seminar with Margo Steines.
