ALL CLASSES ONLINE
Spring 2021 writing & reading classes oo
TABLE OF CONTENTS COVID-19: All Spring 2021 classes will take place online.
About Our Classes ... 2 All classes are listed in Pacific Time.
Highlights ... 3 Classes listed as “Asynchronous” will be held on our Wet Ink platform that allows for asynchronous learning. Students will receive Fiction ... 4 an invitation to join Wet Ink on the class start date. Nonfiction ... 9 Poetry ... 13 Mixed Genre ... 18
Writing for Performance ... 23 Reading ... 24 The Writing Life ... 25 Free Resources ... 27 About Our Teachers ... 31
iiii From Our Education Director REGISTRATION
Register by phone at 206.322.7030 After a year of learning a new way to live amongst each other, Spring has or online at hugohouse.org. arrived again. Neruda said, “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” Thank heavens for them—the flowers, the All registration opens at 10:30 am words, the things that are keeping us going. $500+ donor registration: March 8 Member registration: March 9 This season, I hope you will join us for a special free community workshop General registration: March 16 led by Felicia Rose Chavez, author of The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, who will help us learn to “read in service of the author’s agenda, articulate Register early to save with early bird constructive questions, and moderate our own feedback.” Please find more pricing, in effect March 8–22. information on this and all our other free classes in the Free Resources section on page 27.
SCHOLARSHIPS Please note that we’ve added closed captioning to all of our classes, for anyone who needs or wants to follow along with a live transcript. If there Need-based scholarships are available are other access needs we can help you with, please don’t hesitate to reach every quarter. Applications are due out to [email protected]. We have or will acquire the resources to March 15, and scholarship applicants make class accessible for you. will be notified March 22. In partnership with Seattle Escribe, we’re offering two classes this quarter: Visit bit.ly/HHscholarship for more Gabriel García Márquez (this time in English, summer quarter in Spanish) information and to apply. and Ver para crear, a free class for the community.
We’ve also included five one-session nature-writing classes in April, in MEMBERSHIP celebration of Earth Day. If you’re looking to center your work on place or advocate for environmental justice, keep an eye out for the classes marked As a member, you help us provide with this icon: thought-provoking classes and events that connect writers and readers to the I’m thrilled to bring on many new voices this quarter, including Crosscut craft of writing. You’ll also receive great reporter Lola E. Peters; five-time novelist Darien Hsu Gee, whom I met benefits, including early registration in the Zoom room taking a Hugo House class last spring; and poet and and discounts on classes and events. activist Patricia Spears Jones, whose recent poem in the New Yorker, “Betye Learn more at Saar’s ‘Mystic Chart for an Unemployed Sorceress,’” ends with these hugohouse.org/become-member/ gorgeous lines:
What must I do to bring QUESTIONS? Runes from my parched throat, medicine back to my pockets.
If you want to know more about a class See you in the classroom, or Hugo House policies, email us at [email protected] or call 206.322.7030. We are here to help! Margot Kahn Case
hugohouse.org 206.322.7030 [email protected] 1 ABOUT OUR CLASSES
STUDENT GUIDELINES CLASS LEVELS Our Student Guidelines are intended to help you and your fellow TIERED | These courses are designed students engage in our literary community with compassion, curiosity, to equip you with tools, skills, and an and consideration. If you experience or witness any harassment or understanding of the diverse voices at discrimination in a Hugo House class, please alert the registrar: work in each genre. You may self-select [email protected] or 206.322.7030. into classes based on where you feel comfortable. Take these classes as Hugo House does not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, many times as you like. transphobic, or any other oppressive behaviors. Please alert Margot Kahn Case, education director, if you experience or witness any harassment or ALL LEVELS | Many classes at Hugo discrimination. At all times, please: House are intended for writers at any level, regardless of prior writing class • Remain respectful of all writers (and their work) in the classroom. experience. • If you come into the classroom with a background of privilege, be aware of that position and the ways in which it can potentially affect INTRODUCTORY | Writers with other students. limited experience in a writing class or • Be intentional in working against traditional power dynamics, which workshop setting who want to expand can alienate and silence voices that have been historically marginalized. their knowledge should consider introductory classes. These classes are • Be aware that your fellow students have an equal right to the class also designed for writers who want to space and time. explore a new genre. • Put aside personal technology, if not being used for the purpose of the class. INTERMEDIATE | Writers with some experience in genre-specific instruction For the full version, please visit: hugohouse.org/classes/student-guidelines/ looking to deepen their understanding should consider intermediate classes. ACCESS NEEDS These classes often feature a workshop component in which student work is For students with access needs, Hugo House is ready to help. Teachers shared and critiqued. should reach out about access needs, but please also feel free to notify the registrar of your individual needs before your class begins. ADVANCED | Writers with significant experience in a writing class or CATALOG KEY workshop setting who seek assistance
ABOUT OUR CLASSES and feedback with revision should This denotes an asynchronous class. These classes can be done consider advanced classes. at your own pace throughout the week.
REFUNDS CANCELLATIONS & TRANSFERS
Hugo House cannot provide refunds, If you need to cancel your registration for a class, the following refund transfers, or makeup sessions for classes schedule applies: a student might miss. If Hugo House has to cancel a class, you will receive a • 3 days or more before a class, a class credit or transfer will be issued full refund. less a $15 fee. Refunds will be issued less a $35 fee. • Less than 3 business days before a class starts, no refund, credits, or transfers are available. • No refunds, credits, or transfers are available after classes begin.
2 HIGHLIGHTS
FICTION RUSSELL BANKS WRITING DOWN TO THE ROOT OF MEANING All Levels | Participants will bring the first page of a new story or novel, typed and double-spaced. We will start with these twigs at the top of the tree and work our way down to the trunk, on our way to the root of meaning. Using the first paragraphs of several classic short stories and novels as guides, we will examine the difference between the start and the beginning of a story or novel. Participants should not bring the first page of an already written work of fiction or one that has been sketched out or outlined. This is not about revision. This is not a workshop. Start fresh with no more than a couple of prose twigs.
One session | Friday, May 14 | 1:10–4:10 pm General: $150 | Member: $135 HIGHLIGHTS POETRY PATRICIA SPEARS JONES CAN THIS POEM BE SAVED? Intermediate/Advanced | Often, we find ourselves with stacks or files of nearly finished, not-quite-there poems—revisions have come and gone and yet the poem remains in question. And the question is, Can this poem be saved? Well, sometimes yes and sometimes, sadly, no. But if you have poems that might need a new beginning or a new perceiving—this workshop asks that you bring them in and let’s see if the poem or poems can, indeed, be saved. Oh, and maybe you’ll find yourself with a stack of new poems, too.
Photo: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Four sessions | Thursdays, April 8–May 6 [no class Apr. 29] | 1:10–3:10 pm General: $240 | Member: $216
MIXED GENRE REBECCA MAKKAI
INTERIORITY COMPLEX Intermediate/Advanced | The great advantage of prose (over theater, film, and life) is that we’re privy to characters’ interior states. But how can a writer get thoughts and emotions across, other than by stating them flat-out or by updating us constantly on breathing and heart rate? We’ll explore ways to use tangent, gesture, backstory, action, association, and more to give characters a rich internal life without resorting to the old cardiopulmonary check-in.
One session | Sunday, April 11 | 10 am–1 pm General: $150 | Member: $135 3 FICTION
tiered classes
FICTION II ALMA GARCÍA This class will build upon craft learned in Fiction I. We’ll briefly review the basics of Eight sessions character, conflict, and plot, then focus on craft elements including point of view, Thursdays, April 8–May 27 setting, scene, pacing, and dialogue. Students will read published stories weekly, 7:10–9:10 pm do weekly in-class and take-home writing exercises, lead discussions, and workshop General: $395 | Member: $355 their own drafts (including a full story or story/novel excerpt) in a supportive environment with their teacher and peers.
FICTION III SUSAN MEYERS This class will build upon craft learned in Fiction I and II. Students can expect Ten sessions advanced readings, regular workshops, and feedback from their classmates and Tuesdays, April 6–June 8 instructor. We’ll look at each other’s drafts with an eye to properly balancing the [No class Feb. 18] elements of story, such as plot, character, voice, and pacing, into a well-structured, 5–7 pm thematically resonant whole that keeps the reader turning the pages. As time General: $480 | Member: $432 allows, we’ll also examine published work that inspires and instructs.
FICTION III (ASYNCHRONOUS) PETER MOUNTFORD This online class focuses primarily on offering participants opportunities Ten sessions for advanced peer review—reading and responding to each other’s full April 6–June 8 short stories or novel excerpts, as well as shorter assignments. In addition to plenty Online via Wet Ink of peer review, Fiction III—which builds on lessons from Fiction I and Fiction General: $480 | Member: $432 II (although those are not prerequisites)—offers advanced craft lessons, as well as videos, podcasts, and resources for publication and expanding your writing com- munity. This class takes place online through our partners at Wet Ink, and sessions
FICTION can be done at your own pace throughout the week.
general
AUTOFICTION CORINNE MANNING All Levels | Unlike personal essay and memoir, which are the explorations of what Four sessions was, autofiction allows us to keenly feel into what was while also imagining the Wednesdays, April 7–28 form and occasion of the story being told. In this generative workshop we will 7:10–9:10 pm experiment with methods that will manipulate the lived and sensed reality of our General: $240 | Member: $216 experience and attempt a form that creates greater possibility for experimentation. Example writers will include Dionne Brand, Yūko Tsushima, and Hervé Guibert.
WRITING ALONGSIDE THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE RUTH JOFFRE FICTION AND FANTASY 2020 Six sessions All Levels | Each week, we will read and discuss at least two stories from BASFF Thursdays, April 8–May 13 2020. Lesson plans will focus on story elements such as worldbuilding, character 7:10–9:10 pm development, time management, information release, and more. In-class exercises General: $305 | Member: $275 and writing prompts will help students emulate what they have read and apply the skills we discuss in class. 4 MOBY-DICK AND MARILYNNE ROBINSON LIZA BIRNBAUM All Levels | Marilynne Robinson’s first novel,Housekeeping , is a slim book about Ten sessions two young women growing up in a Northern Idaho town—a scope and premise Thursdays, April 8–June 10 strikingly unlike Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Why, then, was Robinson’s work- 5–7 pm ing title for the manuscript “Moby-Jane”? In this class, we’ll read Moby-Dick and General: $480 | Member: $432 Housekeeping, paying close attention to their affinities and considering how both writers’ lyric language, vivid description, and what Robinson calls the “spectacular exploration of the metaphorical acts of consciousness” might influence our own work.
WRITING MAXIMALIST PROSE JOHN ENGLEHARDT All Levels | For writers interested in achieving higher levels of specificity in their Four sessions work, this class will explore literary maximalism, a style that favors digression, Saturdays, April 10–May 1 reference, and elaborate detail. In addition to studying examples from Karen Tei 1:10–3:10 pm Yamashita, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Lucy Ellmann, and William Faulkner, General: $240 | Member: $216 we’ll also undertake in-class and take-home writing exercises that will encourage maximalist modes of expression.
THE ELEGANCE OF COMPRESSION KIRSTEN SUNDBERG Intermediate/Advanced | Many of the best short stories convey the wholeness and LUNSTRUM FICTION richness of a character’s entire life in only a handful of pages. How? We’ll examine One session five example stories with narrative arcs that span their character’s life, specifically Saturday, April 10 considering how these stories’ authors use precision in language and pattern in 10 am–1 pm structure, and “turn” rather than “close” to achieve the kind of complexity and General: $90 | Member: $81 fullness often attributed only to longer works. Writing exercises will also be offered as a way for class participants to experiment with their own fiction. Participants should come to class having read all five example stories.
LITERARY HORROR: USING FEAR IN FICTION ANNESHA MITHA All Levels | This class will explore how horror tropes and “scary fiction” can be Six sessions used in ambitious and socially conscious storytelling. Through discussion of rele- Sundays, April 11–May 16 vant texts, we will determine how we can use fear to illuminate something essential 1:10–3:10 pm about the world around us. Readings include work by Shirley Jackson, Octavia General: $305 | Member: $275 Butler, Jordan Peele, Victor LaValle, and Samanta Schweblin. Students will gener- ate and share new work, and can expect to come away with at least one full-length story draft or novel chapter.
WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ELISE HOOPER All Levels | Is there a historical figure or event that interests you? A story in your Six sessions family’s past that’s begging to be told? A persistent “what if ” about history that Monday, April 19–May 24 won’t stop nagging you? Let’s fire up our imaginations and investigative skills and 1:10–3:10 pm get to work. In this class, we’ll explore the balance between fact and fiction by div- General: $305 | Member: $275 ing into history. Each week we’ll explore research strategies, hone our craft with writing exercises, share our work for feedback, and study and discuss the writing of Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel, George Saunders, and others. By the end of these six weeks, you could have a draft of a short story or the start of a new longer piece.
5 REVISING WITH E.M. FORSTER’S ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL NICOLA DEROBERTIS-THEYE Intermediate | So you have a first draft of the novel. Congratulations! Now you One session need to make it better—but how? Where do you start? We’ll use E.M. Forster’s Sunday, April 24 1927 classic Aspects of the Novel to discuss how one might go about tackling such a 10 am–1 pm project. His ‘aspects’ are divided into The Story, People, The Plot, Fantasy, Prophecy, General: $90 | Member: $81 and Pattern and Rhythm; these will provide guideposts in our discussion.
WRITING WITH GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ MARGARITA BORRERO All Levels | This course will focus on Gabriel García Márquez, one of the best writ- Six sessions ers of the twentieth century. Based on his writings, we will center on how to find Saturdays, May 1–June 12 the story, choosing the right moment for the opening, taking advantage of point [No class May 29] of view, plotting, and balancing style and form. We will study García Márquez’s 10 am–12 pm own testimony about how his stories took form and examine the storytelling tools General: $305 | Member: $275 and evolution that made him a master of the craft. At the end of each lesson, we’ll do class exercises aimed at exploring our own writing. This class is being offered in collaboration with Seattle Escribe and will be offered in Spanish in Summer 2021.
REVISION STRATEGIES CARI LUNA Intermediate | Do you find yourself at a loss when revising your fiction, spending One session hours moving commas around while the larger edits evade you? Revising your Sunday, May 2 writing can be an intimidating, overwhelming experience, but it doesn’t have to 10 am–1 pm be. In this class, you’ll learn tools and techniques to help you analyze your work, General: $90 | Member: $81 to see the big picture as well as all the intricate moving parts, and to then revise it to a final, polished draft. Bring a draft of a story or a novel excerpt that you’d like to work on in class.
MARY GAITSKILL’S SHORT FICTION JOHN ENGLEHARDT All Levels | This class will explore the craft of Mary Gaitskill’s short fiction, such Four sessions FICTION as her concept of the “inner weave,” temporal distortions, and her matter-of-fact Wednesdays, May 5–26 portrayal of taboo subjects. We will also discuss the recurring themes of sexuality, 7:10–9:10 pm violence, and wayward lives that have filled her stories since her 1988 debut, Bad General: $240 | Member: $216 Behavior. Class will be a discussion-based, collaborative “book club” environment, with some informal or analytic writing assignments.
GET YOUR NOVEL DONE JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON All Levels | In this class, we’ll focus on every stage of writing a novel: from outlining Six sessions and drafting to revision and completion. Each week we’ll focus on one aspect of Thursdays, May 6–June 10 the novelist’s practice—like developing an outline—as well as one element of 5–7 pm storytelling craft, like suspenseful dialogue. Through a mix of seminar discussions, General: $305 | Member: $275 brief lectures, writing exercises, and close readings, students will develop the skills necessary to complete a draft of their novel.
6 EXPERIMENTS IN FORM JACQUELINE KOLOSOV All Levels | In this class, we will explore the possibilities of form in fiction, using Six sessions structural resources such as Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Saturdays, May 8–June 12 Pattern in Narrative along with the more traditional (and perhaps archetypal) 1:10–3:10 pm hero’s (or heroine’s) quest that engages Joseph Campbell’s much-discussed model. General: $305 | Member: $275 As part of our exploration, each of the first three weeks will include readings in form as well as fiction along with a brief craft assignment. During the latter three weeks, writers will submit a story draft or a novel chapter-in-progress for discussion. We will read work by a wide range of writers including Peter Orner, Julia Wickersham, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, and Helen Oyeyemi.
HOW TO CONCLUDE A STORY OR NOVEL J. RYAN STRADAL All Levels | One of the hardest jobs we have as fiction writers is deciding how One session and where to stop. In this one-day class, we’ll examine some of the classic endings Sunday, May 9 in literature, explore the different styles and purposes of an ending, and discuss 1:10–4:10 pm strategies for our own. To get the most out of this class, students should have a General: $150 | Member: $135 work-in-progress—anything from an outline to a finished manuscript—and provide an ending of their own (or another they admire) for discussion.
WRITING KIDS IN A GROWN-UP WORLD EVAN RAMZIPOOR FICTION All Levels | The Family Fang, The Kite Runner, Ender’s Game, All the Light We One session Cannot See . . . Some of our most memorable and sophisticated fiction is populated Sunday, May 16 by child protagonists. Children often see and hear everything that we miss, which 1:10–4:10 pm makes them uniquely difficult (and interesting) characters. Students will learn General: $90 | Member: $81 how to write complex kids and young adults for an adult market. We will conduct small-group exercises and analyze scenes from recent novels. Students will then practice their skills by writing a short scene.
MODERN ALLEGORICAL FICTION JOHN ENGLEHARDT All Levels | This class will study contemporary narratives that express abstract ideas Four sessions through imagery, character, and action—otherwise known as allegories, fables, or Thursdays, May 20–June 10 parables. In addition to studying the craft of stories that are “vehicles for ideas,” 7:10–9:10 pm we’ll discuss the role of the interpretive process in allegorical fiction. Authors General: $240 | Member: $216 we’ll examine might include Rebecca Brown, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Margaret Atwood, and Haruki Murakami. Class will be a mix of discussion, lecture, and writing assignments.
CASUAL CONVERSATION BRUCE HOLBERT All Levels | We say several thousand words a day to one another, yet writing di- One session alogue is tricky. It must remain true to how we speak but not too much so. It Saturday, May 22 must move plot and character without appearing to. And, like the best dances, 1:10–4:10 pm good dialogue is the game, sometimes friendly, others not, that propels characters General: $90 | Member: $81 through stories. You may bring previous work to discuss, or we’ll create something new based on dexterous dialogue by Amy Hempel, Henry Green, Alice Walker, Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Jean Rhys.
7 POLITICS AND PROSE: TACKLING SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES THROUGH FICTION JENNIFER DE LEON All Levels | In a time of political upheaval, amidst a saturated media landscape, One session deeply imagined narratives of individual lives are more important than ever. In this Wednesday, June 2 session, we will explore the craft considerations in creating prose that gives a human 1:10–4:10 pm face to charged political issues. How do writers depict the realities of place and time General: $90 | Member: $81 while maintaining allegiance to the desires and complexities of individual lives? How do we convey strongly held beliefs without becoming didactic and boring? Writers who are working on fiction about social issues are encouraged to bring in their work with opportunity for questions and discussion.
CHARACTER AS ACTION ROBIN MCLEAN All Levels | “Character,” according to Aristotle, “gives us qualities, but it is in One session action—what we do—that we are happy or the reverse.” In this one-day session, Sunday, June 6 writers of fiction will explore building more engaging characters through action, 1:10–4:10 pm as opposed to dialogue or happenstance. Come away with methods for swiftly General: $90 | Member: $81 giving your characters more agency and depth, freeing them to move your story forward in unexpected ways. We will look to Samuel Beckett for guidance.
WORLDBUILDING EVAN RAMZIPOOR All Levels | Though we often associate worldbuilding with fantasy, every story is a One session series of nesting dolls with worlds inside of them: countries, cities, neighborhoods, Sunday, June 6 friend groups, and internal frameworks. Students will learn how to create and 1:10–4:10 pm populate worlds on the page. We will conduct group exercises and discuss excerpts General: $90 | Member: $81 from work by China Miéville, Eleanor Catton, Margaret Atwood, Daniel Handler, and Donna Tartt. This is a genre-agnostic class, so expect to come away with paradigms you can apply to any story.
FICTION TIME AS A TOOL FOR TENSION ROBIN MCLEAN All Levels | There are always at least two ticking clocks in fiction. One is the One session timeline of the story. The other is the clock on the reader’s patience. To get the Sunday, June 13 reader to the end of the tale, the two clocks must interact successfully through 1:10–4:10 pm a series of decisions to keep the tension taut: where to compress time for best General: $90 | Member: $81 effect, where to expand it, where to jump ahead or back. In this one-day session you will practice—looking to Joy Williams, Colson Whitehead, and Chekhov for guidance—the careful management of time to increase the tension and, therefore, power in your fiction.
8 NONFICTION
tiered classes
CREATIVE NONFICTION I BETH SLATTERY This class helps you decide the best way to tell the nonfiction story you want to tell. Six sessions We will figure out the true topic of our pieces, and how to most effectively explore Tuesdays, April 6–May 11 those topics through points of view, scene, reflection, and form. Using generative 10 am–12 pm writing, reading, and an introduction to the workshop model, we will begin to General: $305 | Member: $275 investigate our own personal stories. Students will generate 15–20 pages, which will be shared in workshop and will receive extensive instructor feedback.
CREATIVE NONFICTION II NICOLE HARDY This class will build on craft learned in Creative Nonfiction I with a focus on Eight sessions structure and form. We will investigate both traditional and nontraditional forms, Tuesdays, April 13–June 1 including memoir, the lyric essay, and the hermit crab essay, as well as the role of 7:10–9:10 pm research in creative nonfiction. Students can expect weekly readings, exercises, and General: $395 | Member: $355
workshops with significant instructor feedback. NONFICTION
CREATIVE NONFICTION III GAIL FOLKINS This class will be a mix of craft discussion and workshop to hone your essays so they Ten sessions pop on the page. Readings will include key elements of structure and narrative. Tuesdays, April 6–June 8 For much of the class, your essays will serve as the text in a productive workshop 5–7 pm setting. Each student will have two of their essays workshopped. Generate new General: $480 | Member: $432 material or come to class with work in progress.
general
FROM HISTORY TO STORY (ASYNCHRONOUS) SUSAN MEYERS Introductory | You’ve got a life story to tell, but how can you turn “history” Eight sessions into a “story”? What should you include? And what should you leave out? April 6–May 25 Moreover, how can you make your memories interesting to a reader? This class ex- Online via Wet Ink plores storytelling techniques from memoir to autobiographical fiction to help you General: $395 | Member: $355 bring your story to life. This class takes place online through our partners at Wet Ink, and sessions can be done at your own pace throughout the week.
INTRO TO WRITING MEMOIR, PART III: STRUCTURING AND SHARING YOUR STORIES THEO NESTOR Introductory | This eight-week course will focus on methods for structuring your Eight sessions personal narratives so that they are powerful, unified, and publishable. The course Tuesdays, April 6–May 25 will offer strategies for improving your stories’ impact, flow, and coherence, and 5–7 pm give you plenty of opportunities to practice those strategies. You will also be pro- General: $575 | Member: $518 vided with resources for finding and selecting places to submit your work for pub- lication, skills for formatting your work and communicating with publications, and tips for preparing to share your stories with the world. Registration for the one-day Publishing Intensive, May 8, 2021, is included in the fee for this course.
9 READING AND WRITING DISABILITY EMILY RAPP BLACK Introductory | This is an introductory course in disability studies. We will read Ten sessions work written by people with disabilities about their experiences living and thriving Tuesdays, April 6–June 8 with disability, and we will also read some literary and cultural theory. We will 1:10–3:10 pm read fiction in which a person with a disability is the protagonist. Reading will General: $480 | Member: $432 come from the anthologies About Us: Essays from the New York Times Disability Series and Beauty is a Verb by Sheila Black. Participants will be offered generative exercises each week.
SHAPING THE STORY: ADVANCED MEMOIR EMILY RAPP BLACK Advanced | This class is for people who are writing a book-length memoir and Ten sessions looking for structural guidance. We will embrace the difficult task of revision, Thursdays, April 8–June 10 which almost always comes down to structural tweaks and considerations. This is 1:10–3:10 pm a workshop, so students will be able to submit one chapter (up to 25 pages) and a General: $480 | Member: $432 “rough sketch/overview” that provides context for the chapter within the larger arc of the book.
FINDING YOUR STORY THEO NESTOR Introductory/Intermediate | Many writers experience a longing to write about their One session own lives but little idea of where to begin, of where to dig to unearth the stories you Saturday, April 17 know are there somewhere. Together, we will drill down and find those stories. The 1:10–4:10 pm class will include some lecture and discussion, but the bulk of the session will be General: $90 | Member: $81 spent on writing prompts. Bring your laptop or pen and paper and your willingness to write and discover.
THE ART OF SLOW WRITING ANN HEDREEN All Levels | “The best writing grows by accretion, over time,” writes Louise De- One session Salvo in The Art of Slow Writing. “Taking time prevents us from writing knee-jerk Sunday, April 18 responses to challenging material. It encourages us to reflect upon, and express, 1:10–4:10 pm the complexity of our subjects.” In this generative class, we’ll explore ways to slow General: $90 | Member: $81
NONFICTION down our memoir writing: to allow ourselves time to imagine, to experiment, to add richness and depth. We’ll also look at examples by writers who work this way, including John Steinbeck, Annie Dillard, Pam Houston, and Barack Obama.
WRITING THE GARDEN BONNIE J. ROUGH All Levels | “I am intrigued by writers who garden and gardeners who write. The Eight sessions pen and the trowel are not interchangeable, but seem often linked,” writes land- Tuesdays, April 20–June 8 scape historian and literary biographer Marta McDowell. This class for writers and 10 am–12 pm gardeners of all levels will explore that fertile link, drawing the narratives out of General: $395 | Member: $355 our flower beds, delving for meaning in our veggie plots, cultivating rich metaphor, and most of all, digging into the hidden-in-plain-sight stories that our past and present gardens tell about us—our lives, our loves, and our fleeting toeholds on this earth. We’ll use samples of classic and contemporary garden literature as seeds for our weekly prompts and exercises, finding abundant opportunities to share, collaborate, and nurture tender starts into full bloom.
10 SELF-PORTRAITS AND LANDSCAPES: BRINGING THE PERSONAL INTO NATURE WRITING LIZA BIRNBAUM All Levels | When we write about nature, there’s always an observing “I” One session embedded in what we describe—and when we write about our personal Sunday, April 25 experience, there’s always some context beyond our human surroundings. In this 1:10–4:10 pm class, we’ll try our hand at writing prose that brings the relationship between the General: $90 | Member: $81 self and the nonhuman world into sharp focus. We’ll look at examples by Annie Dillard, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others, focusing on the craft choices they use to paint dual portraits of themselves and their surroundings. You’ll leave with new writing and inspiration for moving forward.
WRITING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE LOLA E. PETERS All Levels | Whether writing essays, short stories, or novels, writing effectively is Two sessions as much craft as art. Unlike speech, where you can use facial expression or vocal Tuesdays, May 11–18 inflection to clarify the passion and meaning of your words, writing requires skill 5–7 pm to convey feeling and context. Explore what makes an article compelling and how General: $120 | Member: $108 you can harness those elements to write effectively. In the first session we’ll identify elements of effective social justice writing and write our own short pieces. In the NONFICTION second week we’ll strengthen what you’ve written.
TRUTH OR FICTION SUSAN MEYERS Introductory | Writing about real life can be tricky. You may not remember all the One session details—or, you may want to change information to protect people or make a story Saturday, May 15 more interesting. But how much is okay to change? This class explores memoir and 1:10–5:10 pm autobiographical fiction to examine how “true” your life stories should be. We’ll General: $90 | Member: $81 consult writers like Patricia Hampl, David Sedaris, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Carmen Maria Machado; and we’ll use writing exercises to help you begin your own personal writing project.
MORE THAN MEMORIES: MAKING MEANING IN MEMOIR KIMBERLY DARK All Levels | Memories aren’t enough. We have to connect them to culture, to his- One session tory, to zeitgeist—and then be as clear and specific about our unique perspectives Saturday, May 22 as possible. In this generative workshop, we’ll open a number of creative doorways 1:10–4:10 pm (and windows and portholes and tunnels) into meaning and discuss how and why General: $90 | Member: $81 they work. Participants will leave with at least twelve new prompts for mining memory and life stories for deeper meaning.
OPINION WRITING 101: THE ART OF THE OP-ED ELISABETH EAVES Introductory | In a time of division, how do you convince others of your point Two sessions of view? Writers who shape the way we think have mastered the art and craft of Thursdays, May 27 & June 3 the op-ed. We’ll dissect successful op-eds and talk surefire structure. Students will 5–7 pm submit story ideas for feedback, and during the second session will outline their General: $120 | Member: $108 own drafts. As this is a class about persuasion, controversial ideas will likely be discussed. Readings will be sent out in advance.
11 NARRATIVE RECLAMATION FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR: POWER ON THE PAGE ZAIN SHAMOON
Intermediate | This class confronts sociopolitical power dynamics that have his- Two sessions torically interrupted voices of color from being heard. We will discuss these power Sundays, June 6 & 13 dynamics, and what it means to make space for communities of color, as we work 1:10–4:10 pm to express our stories in an oppressive world. Using writing as a form of resistance, General: $180 | Member: $162 we will center stories of color to generate pieces about taking back power through the page. This class will include group dialogue, writing prompts, and developing a new piece.
FINDING YOUR SUBJECT AND YOUR AUTHORITY IN NONFICTION KATE LEBO Intermediate | This is a class about strategies writers use to discover their subjects Six sessions and develop their authority while not-knowing, and how this essential risk can lead Wednesdays, May 5–June 9 to greater vulnerability, complexity, and artistic surprise. We’ll read a lot—whole 7:10–9:10 pm books by Rebecca Brown, Helen Garner, and Margot Jefferson. We’ll study the General: $305 | Member: $275 ways nonfiction becomes larger than what it’s “about.” Then we’ll find our own subjects via multiple kinds of research and self-interrogation. Each student’s weekly writing will culminate in a finished essay.
THE NEXT-LEVEL MICRO ESSAY ANNA VODICKA Intermediate/Advanced | This course operates as an extension of Anna’s original Six sessions Micro Essay class—a dynamic study in techniques, with readings, prompts, and Wednesdays, May 5–June 9 discussion of your own work, which you’ll generate in and out of class. Using the 5–7 pm foundations of The Micro Essay, we’ll move toward a deeper understanding of flash General: $305 | Member: $275 nonfiction craft while practicing a variety of forms: lyric short-shorts, the micro polemic, collage, ekphrasis, and more. Prerequisite: The Micro Essay (or equivalent) & a note to the instructor including one micro essay.
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING: NARRATING THE NATURAL WORLD ANNA CLARK NONFICTION All Levels | Our shared earth is rich with stories. This class explores ways of chron- One session icling it, from fervent attention to species not our own to the largest questions of Saturday, May 8 climate change and environmental justice. We’ll engage with writers such as John 10 am–1 pm Steinbeck, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, John McPhee, Robin Wall Kimmerer, General: $150 | Member: $135 Elizabeth Rush, Camille T. Dungy, and Carolyn Finney. We’ll consider how writ- ing about “the environment” and “the city” are not separate practices. We’ll discuss precision, complexity, scope, empathy, testimony, and even humor. Participants will receive a Dropbox folder of environmental writing resources.
12 POETRY
tiered classes
POETRY II SHARON BRYAN Poetry II will focus on developing aspects of craft that will help you close the gap Eight sessions between what’s in your head and what’s on the page. We’ll look at a wide range Tuesdays, April 13–June 1 of published poems and excerpts from craft books. When we discuss your poems 1:10–3:10 pm we’ll look for clues about moving them to the next draft. And finally, we’ll work to General: $395 | Member: $355 broaden and articulate our sense of what makes a good poem.
POETRY II (ASYNCHRONOUS) MICHELLE PEÑALOZA This class will build upon craft learned in Poetry I. Through more intensive Eight sessions readings, prompts, discussions, and workshops of your poems, we will April 7–May 26 further develop our poetic technique. While Poetry I is aimed at introducing you Online via Wet Ink to the vast creative toolbox available to any poet, the goal of Poetry II is to explore General: $395 | Member: $355 in more detail those craft elements that are most often at play in your own growing body of work. This class takes place online through our partners at Wet Ink, and sessions can be done at your own pace throughout the week.
POETRY III JEANINE WALKER POETRY In examining the rhetoric of contemporary published poets, we learn new Eight sessions techniques to apply to our own work. We’ll read and study, among others, Wednesdays, April 7–June 9 Jericho Brown, Farnoosh Fathi, and Hayan Charara. Building on a foundation 10 am–12 pm of craft elements, we’ll practice generative writing exercises to produce new General: $480 | Member: $432 poems. Students will participate in a supportive workshop in which their work is appreciated for what it is and where they are creatively encouraged to grow.
general
ASSEMBLING A CHAPBOOK FOR PUBLICATION LISA GLUSKIN STONESTREET Intermediate/Advanced | In this workshop, you’ll put together a chapbook manu- Six sessions script to submit to publishers or self-publish. We’ll explore structural and stylistic Thursdays, April 8–May 20 possibilities, how chapbooks differ from full-length collections, and techniques [No class May 13] for writing with a series or larger project in mind. Next we’ll discuss two award- 7:10–9:10 pm winning chapbooks (which you’re encouraged to read in advance); practice hands- General: $305 | Member: $275 on structuring, ordering, and titling exercises; and bring what you’ve learned to create a manuscript of 8–24 pages.
WRITING POEMS ON ILLNESS, TRAUMA & HEALING SUZANNE EDISON All Levels | The body is the repository for our experiences of illness and trauma. We Six sessions will focus on body awareness, thoughts and experiences, and poetic craft: images, Thursdays, April 8–May 13 syntax, narrative, and forms, to transform experiences of illness and trauma into art. 5–7 pm Readings will include Lucia Perillo, Nick Flynn, Lucille Clifton, Rafael Campo, General: $305 | Member: $275 and others. Each week we read, discuss, and write from class prompts. Time will be spent workshopping student poems. A syllabus will be sent out before class begins.
13 TEXTURE & THE TEXT EMILY SKILLINGS All Levels | Can thought have a texture? How about a feeling, a day, or a dream? In One session A Thousand Plateaus (1980) philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari talk Saturday, April 10 about space/territory as either being smooth or striated (as in muscle). Is your writ- 10 am–1 pm ing smooth or striated? If it were a textile, would it be a patchwork, a smooth bolt General: $90 | Member: $81 of silk, or something intricately embroidered? In this generative workshop, poet Emily Skillings will lead participants through a selection of readings and writing prompts that engage different explorations of texture and its relationship to gram- mar, form, pleasure, image, and memory.
WRITING WITH ELIZABETH BISHOP AND OTHERS CAROLYNE WRIGHT All Levels | “I don’t like teaching,” was how Elizabeth Bishop began her legend- Eight sessions ary workshops at the University of Washington, “but we’ll practice a most use- Saturdays, April 10–May 29 ful poetic strategy—writing in form.” In this workshop modeled on her example, 10 am–12 pm we’ll read poems by Bishop, Hacker, Salter, Stallings, and younger neo-Formalists; General: $395 | Member: $355 explore how form helps poets achieve surprising leaps in their language; discuss received forms like pantoum, sestina, sonnet, triolet, and villanelle; nonce forms like anaphora and abecedarian; and write our own poems in form.
CRAFT ELEMENTS IN POETRY: IMAGE, SOUND, SYNTAX, AND THE LINE GABRIELLE BATES All Levels | In this course, we will focus on four particular craft elements—image, Six sessions sound, syntax, and the line—in order to expand our knowledge of how poets Sundays, April 11–May 16 transmit thought and feeling through language. After our introductory meeting, 1:10–3:10 pm each week will focus on one particular element, diving deep into exemplary poems, General: $305 | Member: $275 then practicing the moves ourselves through a series of prompts.
CREATING YOUR BOOK-LENGTH MANUSCRIPT: POETRY THEME, ORDER, AND REVISION JUDITH SKILLMAN Intermediate | We will explore the recurring images and motifs in your poems Eight sessions toward the development of a chapbook or book-length manuscript. Order is more Mondays, April 12–June 7 than merely a device or afterthought of one’s work. The instructor will provide -ex [No class May 31] ercises and strategies to find umbrella themes, write new material, develop existing 7:10–9:10 pm personae, and delete chaff, with the goal of finding your unique voice. We’ll utilize General: $395 | Member: $355 peer review, and study collections by your favorite poets. Bring forty to fifty pages, including previously published poems.
REVISION PRACTICE FOR POETS ELIZABETH AUSTEN Intermediate | Through in-class discussion and exercises, take-home assignments Eight sessions and reading, we’ll spend the first five weeks building craft skills including figurative Thursdays, April 15–June 10 language, music, diction, and the line. We’ll lean on and learn from the work of [No class May 6] writers including Yusef Komunyakaa, Aracelis Girmay, Ellen Bass, Alice Oswald, 7:10–9:10 pm and Li-Young Lee. The final three weeks will focus on revision strategies and work- General: $395 | Member: $355 shopping participants’ poems. You’ll leave with new tools to ignite and sustain fu- ture poems, and a clearer sense of your own process.
14 REVISION BY POETRY’S PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS KIM STAFFORD Intermediate | Title, first line, line break, voiced cadence, word-field, the turn . . . the One session opportunity for special effects is present in the decisions a writer makes with each Friday, April 16 element. All are at work no matter how long or short the poem may be, or what 9 am–4 pm kind of poem it is—haiku to lyric to epic. Bring your three most promising poems- General: $180 | Member: $162 in-process, and we will work through ways to make them more like what they want to be. This will not be a critique session, but a workshop in generative revision.
THE POEMS ONLY YOU CAN WRITE LISA GLUSKIN STONESTREET All Levels | The most powerful poems are sui generis—and each of us has aspects of One session our work that are like no one else’s. We’ll work together to explore and expand the Saturday, April 17 terrain of our work, through the lenses of our personal aesthetic(s) and obsessions. 10 am–1 pm We’ll practice multiple ways of using these factors to inspire new directions, General: $90 | Member: $81 generate new work, offer more productive and authentic feedback, and ultimately help you generate the compelling, distinctive poems that only you can write.
FIND YOUR FEET: THE METRICAL FOOT IN POETRY RENA PRIEST All Levels | “Meter has been called the heartbeat of poetry,” Paul Kiparsky wrote. One session “But like language itself, and music and dance, it pulsates more intricately than Saturday, April 17 anything in the biological or physical world.” Controlling meter allows you to 1:10–4:10 pm build tension to ecstatic release, deep dive into sober solemnity, or gently lay an General: $90 | Member: $81 POETRY epiphany on the brow of your reader. We’ll examine stress, pitch, length, and other features of speech to see how they affect the feel and sound of particular works.
REMIX: MAKING POEMS NEW DAMARIS B. HILL Intermediate | Do you have a dead poem? A piece of poem that seems flat and does One session not seem to meet your expectations of beauty or craft? Don’t throw that poem out; Sunday, April 18 remix it. In this workshop, we will discuss how to manipulate the genre constraints 10 am–1 pm of poetry in order to create new writing from old work. General: $150 | Member: $135
MOVEMENTS AND MOMENTS (ASYNCHRONOUS) AIMEE SUZARA All Levels | What is poetry as social action? We’ll read and discuss works Six sessions by poets of diverse backgrounds, heavily BIPOC, challenging the “canon” April 20–May 25 and forging the path for other writers. We’ll discuss poetry from the Harlem Online via Wet Ink Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, poems about immigration, poetry by Native General: $305 | Member: $275 American and Pacific Islander writers, and more; then we’ll write poems inspired by the readings. Poets may include Lucille Clifton, Haunani Kay-Trask, Patricia Smith, Heid Erdrich, Barbara Reyes, Ocean Vuong, and others. This class takes place on Wet Ink, and sessions can be done at your own pace throughout the week.
EARTH VERSE: WRITING FOR THE EARTH KIM STAFFORD All Levels | When trouble comes in the human world, there may be a One session story from the wild that can offer consolation. From the Gnomic Verses Thursday, April 22 in Old English to the Tao te Ching and the works of Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily 9 am–4 pm Dickinson, and Mary Oliver, we have cherished lyric remedies speaking the language General: $180 | Member: $162 of earth. In this class, we will harvest close observations from your landscapes and compose an archive of blessings, consolations, and manifestos for use as need comes. 15 WRITING ALONGSIDE LOCAL POETS: CHOI, MANGOLD, WONG, AND ZAHER DEBORAH WOODARD All Levels | We’ll read and write poems inspired by the work of four contemporary Six sessions poets particularly concerned with community and exile; self and world; wounds Saturdays, April 24–May 29 and resilience. Weekly prompts and read-arounds of participants’ poems. Feedback 1:10–3:10 pm from instructor. Required Texts: DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi (Wave Books, General: $305 | Member: $275 2020); Giraffes of Devotion by Sarah Mangold (Kore Press, 2016); Over Pour by Jane Wong (Action Books, 2016); and The Consequences of my Body by Maged Zaher (Nightboat Books, 2016).
WRITING THE SELF SACRED & PROFANE LEAH SILVIEUS All Levels | With poets such as Eric Tran, Jericho Brown, Vandana Khanna, and One session Essy Stone serving as our guiding lights, this generative poetry workshop explores Sunday, April 25 how “the sacred” and “the profane” can provide entryways into thinking about 10 am–1 pm our identities, our relationships to each other and to the divine or supernatural General: $90 | Member: $81 (however one conceives of them). I will provide linked writing prompts that will culminate into a poem draft that explores the relationship between the sacred and profane within our own poetic imaginations.
POINT OF VIEW IN POEMS SHARON BRYAN Intermediate | Every story has a teller. Every poem has a speaker and a point of Four sessions view: first person, second person, or third person. First person uses I, second per- Wednesdays, May 5–May 26 son uses you (one other person, the self, a crowd), and third person speaks as a 5–7 pm more distant narrator. We’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages of each one, General: $240 | Member: $216 discuss examples, and watch what happens to poems of your own when you revise them by changing from one point of view to another.
ASSEMBLING THE MANUSCRIPT TESS TAYLOR POETRY Advanced | As poets, how do we put books together? What does it mean to move Six sessions from writing good poems to weaving and assembling an entire book? How do Wednesdays, May 5–June 9 poets listen to the specific calls of the muse toward disparate verses and also keep 5–7 pm an eye on the wider shape of a possible emergent volume? If you have poems but General: $305 | Member: $275 don’t know how to find the book inside them, this class is for you. We will read several collections to understand their logics of assembly, do strategic writing to fill out our collections, generate new material, edit what we have, and collect strategies for aligning our own poems.
FORMS OF POETRY LISA WELLS All Levels | Each week students will read, write, and discuss a different poetic form. Six sessions In an effort to embody each form, students will also select a short poem from the Thursdays, May 6–June 10 readings each week to memorize and recite at the following class. Forms will be 1:10–3:10 pm both traditional and experimental and may include: the sonnet, the pantoum, the General: $305 | Member: $275 haiku, lipogram, nonce, and others.
16 ENTRANCES, EXITS, AND DOORWAYS SARA BRICKMAN
May 15 — Entrances: Titles & First Lines Saturdays, May 15–29 All Levels | A good title and a strong first line determine whether your reader will 1:10–4:10 pm continue reading or move on to another poem. An unforgettable first line changes General: $90 | Member: $81* the whole tenor of your poem, but they are notoriously hard to write. Titles are even more mysterious. In this generative class, you’ll learn and practice five different *Per each session. techniques for opening a poem: The Run On, The Confession, The Fairytale, The Participants can enroll in one, Time Machine, and The Confrontation. With practice, you’ll hone your intuition some, or all of the sessions. and courage to leave the blank page behind and write first lines that grab your reader and won’t let go. Bring one or two poems-in-progress that need a stronger opening or a shiny new title.
May 22 — Exits: Writing Endings All Levels | The poet Rachel McKibbens says, “Poems don’t end, they just stop.” The best endings leave us reeling, the tops of our heads blown off by knowledge we didn’t know we needed, reverberating long after the words have finished and we’ve turned the page. But how do we know when a poem is done? In this class, you’ll learn five techniques for ending a poem. Learn how to Slam the Door, Sing the House Down, Jump Out the Window, and more. Bring one or two poems-in-progress that you don’t know how to end.
May 29 — Doorways: Writing Poetic Turns & Hinges POETRY All Levels | No poem is complete without a moment of surprise or transformation. But how do you write without knowing what you’re writing? In this class, you’ll practice building doorways, tunnels, and hinges. We’ll use meditative techniques and experiments to help you uncover the hidden possibilities in each stanza, and generate material using strategies like The Leap, The Volta, The Trap Door, The -Bull dozer, and Breaking the Fourth Wall. You’ll leave with renewed trust in yourself, and a deeper understanding of how to build moments that make a poem extraordinary. Bring one or two poems-in-progress that feel flat, confusing, or just too simple.
DERIVED POETRY & ITS (DE)FORMS WRYLY MCCUTCHEN All Levels | In this course we’ll dig up, corrupt, and de-arrange existing texts Two sessions through forms like the glossa and Terrance Hayes’s The Golden Shovel. We’ll also Saturdays, June 5 & 12 experiment with erasures and collage. Together, we’ll look at the approaches and 1:10–3:10 pm forms used by Amber Dawn, Srikanth Reddy, and Isobel O’Hare. Our first session General: $120 | Member: $108 will be largely generative. Session two will begin with a discussion of plagiarism and recognition. Class will conclude with opportunities for students to share and receive feedback on their derived works.
LINEATION ELATION DILRUBA AHMED All Levels | This hands-on session will leave you singing the praises of lineation! Three sessions Explore a “toolkit” of strategies that will help you lineate your poems with Tuesdays, June 1–15 confidence and expression. We’ll discuss how lineation choices can have an impact 1:10–3:10 pm on tone, meaning, emphasis, pacing, surprise, and more. Students can expect to General: $180 | Member: $162 lineate the work of others—and their own!—using a variety of approaches, to create various effects. Bring 2–3 draft poems to class (ideally about 8–10 lines long) for experimentation. 17 MIXED GENRE
WRITING RIVETING SENTENCES JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON All Levels | In this course, students will learn how to write suspenseful dialogue, Six sessions riveting exposition, and descriptive detail that will keep your reader turning pages. Mondays, April 5–May 10 Every week will feature a seminar-style discussion of what makes each craft element 5–7 pm click, and these will be paired with student writing exercises. We’ll discuss short General: $305 | Member: $275 examples of student work as a class to highlight new and surprising approaches.
WRITING QUEERLY SARA BRICKMAN All Levels | Queer writers forced outside the margins have learned to write outside Eight sessions the margins: inventing new forms, language, new names for the world around us. Mondays, April 5–May 24 In this generative workshop, students will trace the lineages and poetic strategies of 5–7 pm queer writers from Sappho, Whitman, Audre Lorde, and James Baldwin to Maggie General: $395 | Member: $355 Nelson, sam sax, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jericho Brown. Then we’ll write our own words to honor the weird, the sexy, the rough, and the majestic. Expect a supportive peer community, detailed feedback from the instructor, and the op- portunity to write what you’re afraid to write. Students of all identities welcome.
WRITING A WORLD OF WONDERS GABRIELA DENISE FRANK All Levels | Aimee Nezhukumatathil describes wonder as surprise—when one’s Six sessions curiosity is, “confronted with something unfamiliar or unexpected and that sense Tuesdays, April 6–May 11 of curiosity turns into joy and excitement.” We will immerse ourselves in her book 5–7 pm World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, General: $305 | Member: $275 then generate our own wonder-fueled writing from in-class prompts and exercises. Poets and prose writers welcome. Students will leave with a collection of inspired new work and the option for an instructor conference.
OUT OF THE BLUE, A METEORITE: WRITING WITH SOUTH ASIAN BHAKTI POETRY SHANKAR NARAYAN All Levels | South Asian bhakti poetry has been described as “the breath-catching Six sessions MIXED GENRE moment when self speaks to self more directly than you ever thought possible.” Tuesdays, April 6–May 11 This centuries-old movement of devotional poetry finds the divine in the beloved, 7:10–9:10 pm resulting in some of the most ecstatic words ever written. In this part-generative, General: $305 | Member: $275 part-analytical course, we’ll examine the diverse voices of centuries of bhakts of all genders and spark our own thrilling, electric pieces. All levels and genres welcome—come ready to write!
UNPACKING THE VASTNESS OF MASCULINITY NAA AKUA All Levels | We’ll discuss masculine identity through the lens of a queer perspective, Four sessions using excerpts from Stone Butch Blues, 100 Crushes, Blues Divine, Insubordinate, Wednesdays, April 7–28 Pansy, & More Black, and Nightsong in addition to social media and pop culture 5–7 pm references. We will interrogate toxic masculinity and our own defining journey General: $240 | Member: $216 through the literary form of poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction.
18 WOMXN OF COLOR BUILDING A WRITING PRACTICE ANNE LIU KELLOR All Levels | This class will create a supportive space for womxn and nonbinary Eight sessions people of color to explore our relationship to our writing practice, habits, goals, and Wednesdays, April 7–May 26 fears. Each week we will freewrite from prompts, seeking to let go of the internal 5–7 pm editor and listen to our own unique voices. We will also set intentions, optionally General: $395 | Member: $355 share from our writing, read/respond to short pieces, listen as diverse guest authors share lessons from their own artistic journeys, and co-create community.
TIME TRAVELING AND TIME KEEPING: CONVERSATIONS WITH AUDRE LORDE AND OCTAVIA BUTLER ANASTACIA-RENEÉ Intermediate | In this course we will be in conversation with two award-winning Four sessions writers, Audre Lorde and Octavia Butler, while we examine multigenre craft el- Wednesdays, April 7–28 ements to build poems that bend, restructure, and reimagine form. We will be 7:10–9:10 pm creatively inspired by the notion that paranormal is normal and traditional fiction General: $240 | Member: $216 can inhabit a poem. The goal for all workshop participants is to complete the course with 1–2 poems and one draft of micro-fiction. MIXED GENRE CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK BOOT CAMP JULIE ROMEIS SANDERS Introductory | Kickstart your dream of writing for children with this informative, Eight sessions supportive course that will launch you into the world of picture books with Thursdays, April 8–May 27 insightful discussion about the market, deep studies of mentor texts, and a step- 10 am–12 pm by-step process to get your story out of your head and onto paper. This course will General: $395 | Member: $355 feature live lectures, group critiques, and feedback from the instructor, an editor with twenty years of experience.
ANATOMY OF A SENTENCE TARA ATKINSON All Levels | In this class, you’ll find, read, examine, diagram, imitate, and draft great Six sessions sentences. We’ll start small by identifying sentence parts and practicing varied con- Saturdays, April 10–May 15 structions, then go big, combining sentences to produce vibrant paragraphs. Close 10 am–12 pm reading exercises will fine tune your ear. This generative, exercise-driven class will General: $305 | Member: $275 have minimal homework and focus on exercises to get your creativity flowing and explore your love of language. No grammar expertise needed.
THE JOY OF WRITING ANIMALS CAITLIN SCARANO All Levels | David P. Barash writes, “There isn’t a human society on Earth . . . that One session doesn’t concern itself with animal imagery.” In this class, we’ll focus on the philoso- Saturday, April 10 phy, process, complexity, and joy of writing about non-human animals. Why write 10 am–1 pm about animals in our creative work? How do we write animals well? What are the General: $90 | Member: $81 ethics involved? Students will discuss texts, get writing prompts, and have the op- tion to share their creative work. *Please note, this is not a children’s literature course.
TAKING NOTES FROM YOUR LIFE: JOURNAL WRITING ANN HEDREEN All Levels | Keeping a journal is the most private form of writing. It’s where we One session ruminate, vent, and wail with no holds barred. But it can also be the compost from Sunday, April 11 which to grow writing of all kinds. In this seminar, we’ll talk about how to use your 1:10–4:10 pm journal as a “base layer” to build your memoir, essay, or story. Time will be divided General: $90 | Member: $81 between teaching, looking at examples, discussion, writing in class, and sharing. 19 THE MECHANICS OF COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS DAVID LASKY Introductory | We’ll look at examples from masters of comics and cartoons while & GREG STUMP exploring different aspects of the medium through a variety of exercises and Six sessions assignments. Each student will generate multiple short pieces which can be shared Saturdays, April 17–May 22 via the Padlet website. Students will present their best work in an online reading 1:10–3:10 pm during the final session. For this online class, drawing ability is not as important as General: $305 | Member: $275 the desire to communicate your ideas clearly.
CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK WORKSHOP JULIE ROMEIS SANDERS All Levels | If you are a children’s book writer with one or more manuscripts in your Eight sessions back pocket, this hands-on workshop will hone your skills and give you constructive Saturdays, April 17–June 5 feedback to propel your writing forward. Each week, writers will turn in a new pic- 1:10–3:10 pm ture book text or revision for group critique. Together, we will focus on identifying General: $395 | Member: $355 strengths and weaknesses in writing and developing revision skills. We will also do some in-class writing exercises and share prompts for developing new stories.
WRITING ABOUT FRIENDSHIP LIZA BIRNBAUM All Levels | Friendships aren’t always taken as seriously in our culture as romantic or Eight sessions familial bonds, but they can be every bit as meaningful, dynamic, and complicated. Tuesdays, April 13–June 1 In this class, we’ll consider ways of representing these relationships and their power 5–7 pm on the page. We’ll look to other writers for inspiration, and we’ll explore style, General: $395 | Member: $355 language, and form as we write and revise our own stories of friendship (whether fiction or nonfiction) in a supportive workshop setting.
PSYCHOLOGY FOR WRITERS JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON All Levels | If you’re yearning to expand beyond competent verse, formulaic essays, Four sessions and mediocre storytelling, this course will give you an array of new tools to hone Sundays, April 18–May 9 and cultivate psychological depth in your writing practice. In seminar discussions, 10 am–12 pm brief lectures, and in-class writing, we’ll explore the core concepts of psychoanalysis General: $240 | Member: $216 (including projection, transference, and repetition compulsion) to catalyze your po- ems, essays, and fictional characters through the deep work of inquiry and reflection. MIXED GENRE
ON/OF/FOR THE EARTH MIRANDA WEISS All Levels | In this generative workshop, we will focus on ways our writing One session can be a potent call to protect the planet—whether we’re penning a letter Thursday, April 22 to an elected official, drafting a personal essay, or writing a poem. Prompts and 6–9 pm readings will guide participants into writing that serves as witness to the landscapes General: $90 | Member: $81 we love and will help us approach our work creatively and playfully, even when we are confronting the most challenging issues of our day.
BUILDING PLOT AND CHARACTER THOUGH PLACE NASEEM RAKHA All Levels | There are stories that create place so palpably you can feel it One session scratch the souls of your feet—where setting is not just a literary device or Saturday, April 24 decorative prop, but a dynamic feature, where each valley is imbued with meaning 10 am–1 pm and memory. In this class, we will look at examples of how writers of fiction and General: $90 | Member: $81 nonfiction use setting to advance story, hone our own powers of observation and description, and galvanize our experience by sharing some writing of our own. 20 HOW THE BODY HOLDS ITS STORIES JORDAN ALAM All Levels | How do our bodies hold on to experiences? In this course, writers will Six sessions come together to consider the physical act of writing—how we translate embodied Saturdays, May 1–June 12 knowledge into language on the page. By moving our bodies and engaging our 10 am–12 pm senses, we will generate new writing that touches on our vulnerability and articu- General: $305 | Member: $275 lates hard-to-reach memories. Writers of all genres are encouraged to participate; there is something for the poet, memoirist, and fiction writer in this class.
WRITING ABOUT THE WOMEN IN YOUR FAMILY DARIEN HSU GEE All Levels | Who are the women in your family? What stories need to be told? Four sessions How have these women helped you claim your place in the world, or what secrets Tuesdays, May 11–June 1 might still be holding you back? We’ll explore the roles of these women in our 1:10–3:10 pm lives and how they’ve shaped us. During class, we’ll use prompts to generate micro General: $240 | Member: $216 narratives (300 words or less) and prose poems, discussing how the movement between these two forms can strengthen the story you are trying to tell. Finally, we’ll consider how these pieces may be submitted individually or organized as part of a chapbook, memoir, or more extensive body of work. MIXED GENRE
ETHNICITY & CRAFT: CREATING CHARACTERS, NOT CARICATURES JENNIFER DE LEON All Levels | In this session we will explore craft issues related to ethnicity. How One session much do writers—and should writers—think about ethnicity and culture in the Wednesday, May 12 writing process? How do these considerations influence the choices we make as we 1:10–4:10 pm write? We will discuss specific on-the-page concerns: When do you italicize? How General: $90 | Member: $81 do you handle conversations in languages other than English? How much do you explain or introduce cultural elements? And then there is the question of audience and representation. How does a writer negotiate people’s expectations that that writer is representing an entire culture on the page? This session will be part lecture and part discussion.
HIT THE ROAD KIM BROWN SEELY All Levels | What is it about road trips? From Twain to Kerouac, writers have found Two sessions inspiration in hitting the road, making the American road narrative an essential Saturdays, May 1 & 8 genre. In this class, we’ll examine the ‘road’ in literature as a theme, symbol, and 1:10–4:10 pm organizing principle. Since we’ve all been cooped up this year, class will consist of General: $180 | Member: $162 two sections, and participants will be encouraged to get out between them for a drive. When we re-meet, we’ll bring our scribbles and routes, then write together.
WRITING THE FICTIONAL MEMOIR ANASTACIA-RENEÉ Advanced | Is there a fictional character stuck in your head or writing? Is it begging Six sessions you to tell their story? Do you find yourself people-watching and developing Tuesdays, May 4–June 8 fictional stories based on strangers, or fictional characters that already exist? If 1:10–3:10 pm so, this class if for you. We will write and edit fictional memoir generated from General: $305 | Member: $275 fictional character sketches, poetry, pop culture, and music. We’ll interrogate these characters and assign them layered and believable “memoirs.”
21 LANGUAGE RENOVATION VIA THE LYRIC ESSAY CODY PHERIGO Intermediate | Part playful reading, part generative writing, this class explores Six sessions how creative nonfiction and poetry can blend to become a fantastic “Other.” Thursdays, May 6–June 10 We’ll do a close reading of a plethora of essays, poems, and experimental forms. 7:10–9:10 pm Class includes weekly reading homework, discussion, and in-class writing with General: $305 | Member: $275 instructor-generated prompts. Readings will include fiction with footnotes, lyrical and traditional essays, prose/hybrid poems, and letters. Expect to read work by Roxane Gay, Eleanor Roosevelt, Maggie Nelson, Natalie Diaz, Kim Addonizio, and Jordy Rosenberg.
LAYERS OF LANDSCAPE: HARNESSING THE POWER OF PLACE JOE WILKINS All Levels | We ignore the power of place at our own psychological and physical One session peril. Truly, place is an active force in all our lives. It shapes and reshapes us, offers Saturday, May 8 foundation and refuge, and challenges us to be good citizens of all our communities. 1:10–4:10 pm In life and in writing, we ought to try to understand and harness the power of General: $90 | Member: $81 place. This session offers writers four ways they might begin to do just that.
MICROMANAGE YOUR WRITING GERALDINE WOODS All Levels | A sentence that doubles back on itself, a word that repeats or shifts in One session meaning, sounds that match or clash—these are some of the micro-adjustments Sunday, May 16 authors make to reinforce or deliberately undermine meaning. In this course we’ll 10 am–1 pm examine these and other techniques in sentences and paragraphs from fiction, General: $150 | Member: $135 poetry, drama, nonfiction, and song lyrics created by a diverse array of writers. Students will practice the techniques discussed and share the results with the class.
WRITING ADDICTION TARA HARDY All Levels | The house of addiction has many doors. (Chemical: alcohol, opiates, Six sessions stimulants, hallucinogens, etc. Behavioral: food, gambling, sex, shopping, video Thursdays, May 20–June 24 games, internet, etc.) How many doors have we, and people we love, entered? 5–7 pm MIXED GENRE Writing about addition in ways that are not mere drunk-a-logs requires a brave General: $305 | Member: $275 and artful approach. In this class, we’ll generate new work, focus significantly on craft, and discuss the joys and challenges of writing about addition. Students will have the opportunity to receive feedback on their writing from the instructor at least once.
HYBRID MOMENTS: EXPLORING THE LYRIC ESSAY SASHA LAPOINTE All Levels | We live in a time that challenges the binary and explores intersection Two sessions and identity. How do our stories of self become more realized when we break Saturdays, June 5 & 12 the constructs of traditional personal essay? In this class we will radicalize our 1:10–3:10 pm approach to the personal narrative by intertwining poetry and personal memoir. General: $120 | Member: $108 We will write lyric essays, explore the braided form, and produce hybrid essays that celebrate both personal story and the lyricism of poetry. Come prepared to engage in fun and experimental writing exercises and share stories with one another.
22 WRITING FOR PERFORMANCE
WHEN THEATER AND POETRY MEET: CREATING THE CHOREOPOEM ANASTACIA-RENEÉ Intermediate | We will read closely, discuss, and model new work using Audre Ten sessions Lorde’s Need: A Chorale for Black Women Voices, Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Mondays, April 5–June 14 Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, and Eve [No class May 31] Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues to create our own choreopoems. While we craft 7:10–9:10 pm our choreopoems, we’ll use Lorde’s, Shange’s and Ensler’s poetry, fiction, and General: $480 | Member: $432 nonfiction as inspiration to generate new poems, fiction, and nonfiction. WRITING FOR PERFORMANCE
CREATIVE STORYTELLING THROUGH SONGWRITING SASSYBLACK All Levels | Songs share intimate tales of heartbreak, joy, rage, triumph, and defeat; Eight sessions understanding how to write them adds a useful skill to your writer’s toolbox. Tuesdays, April 20–June 8 Work with singer, songwriter, and producer SassyBlack to learn foundational 5–7 pm songwriting techniques used throughout the music industry. Learn to write to the General: $395 | Member: $355 beat of your own myth or memoir as well as how to intermingle your words within the pulse of the musical landscape of your choosing.
COLLABORATIVE PLAYWRITING FOR THE DIGITAL SPACE DANIELLE MOHLMAN All Levels | Playwriting can often be a solitary process, at least until rehearsals Six sessions start. But what if it didn’t have to be? Each week, we’ll explore the fundamentals of Wednesdays, May 5–June 9 playwriting and discuss how digital spaces like Zoom, podcasts, TikTok, and more 5–7 pm can become exciting new theatrical spaces. Writers will work in teams to bring General: $305 | Member: $275 their short plays to life. Writing will include in-class exercises and Zoom breakout sessions with your cowriter(s). For playwrights—and aspiring playwrights!—of all levels.
SLAM POETRY: SEAMLESS INTONATION ZAIN SHAMOON All Levels | This course is geared toward performance poets who want to add depth Two sessions and playfulness to their slam poems. One core objective is to add dynamics to the Sundays, May 9 & 16 rise and fall of speech intensity. We will cover different ways to achieve this, with an 1:10–3:10 pm opportunity to workshop new pieces on the second day of the course. General: $120 | Member: $108
SCREENWRITING 101 RUSS NICKEL Introductory | The basics of screenwriting, delivered in bite-size assignments. Ten sessions Aimed at beginners excited about dipping their toes into new waters, this class Tuesdays & Thursdays, May 18–June 17 will examine screenplay format, visual storytelling, dialogue, structure, and how 1:10–4:10 pm exactly a script serves as a blueprint for the filmmaking process. Throughout the General: $720 | Member: $648 course, students will generate material to be workshopped in the style of a writers’ room, with student work read aloud and critiqued in class.
23 READING
These seminar-style reading classes are like book clubs on steroids. You wish your book club talked more about the book? You’ve always wanted to read that book but weren’t sure you’d get through it? These reading classes are for you. Led by instructors well-versed in the material and able to talk about literature as art, resis- tance, cultural commentary, and historical artifact, you’ll engage in conversation that illuminates and delights. Registered students receive 20% off required books at the Elliott Bay Book Co.
EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT WRITING, I LEARNED FROM READING . . . STEVE ALMOND
April 11 — . . . Joyce Carol Oates Sundays, April 11–25 April 18 — . . . Tobias Wolff 1:10–4:10 pm April 25 — . . . Nora Ephron General: $150 | Member: $135* All Levels | These workshops will reveal just how much we can learn through a close *Per each session. reading of a single work. By laser-focusing our attention on one brilliant piece, we’ll Participants can enroll in one, be able to deconstruct all aspects of craft: narration, characterization, plot, pacing, some, or all of the sessions. scenes, and exposition. Each class will include a writing prompt, so students can learn by doing. Strap in—this is going to rock.
LIVING NATIONS, LIVING WORDS LAURA DA’ All Levels | This class will travel the pathways of Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s project Two sessions Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry. Students can expect Saturday & Sunday, April 24 & 25 to read, discuss, and contextualize this interactive selection of contemporary 1:10–4:10 pm Indigenous poetics. General: $180 | Member: $162
UPTOWN PROBLEMS: GETTING REAL ABOUT THE GREAT GATSBY MICHAEL SHILLING
READING All Levels | The Great Gastby is a classic—but of what, exactly? Narrative economy Four sessions or simplistic character development? Class striving or white supremacy? Love lost Mondays, May 3–24 or childish ideas? As it goes into the public domain, let’s revisit this canonical 7:10–9:10 pm novel and see how it holds up. We’ll carefully go through the structure, characters, General: $240 | Member: $216 and themes of Fitzgerald’s candyland empire, admiring its charms while calling out its problematic elements. Optional writing prompts will be given for writers who might remix Gatsby into a new, bold narrative.
WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR BY PAUL KALANITHI EMILY RAPP BLACK All Levels | Each week we will read a chapter of this groundbreaking, award- Six sessions winning, Pulitzer Prize-nominated memoir that changed the shape of the genre. Wednesdays, May 5–June 9 We will discuss the craft elements that make this book exemplary, including pacing, 1:10–3:10 pm layering, lyricism, scene creation, and collaboration. Students will be invited to General: $305 | Member: $275 share responses to the work, but this is primarily a discussion-based class. We will also have a special visitor.
24 THE WRITING LIFE
CROWDFUNDING THE CREATIVE LIFE KATHERINE STANDEFER All Levels | How can crowdfunding launch, advance, and sustain writing careers? One session In this single-session class, writers will learn the differences between crowdfunding Saturday, April 10 platforms, consider what goes into building a strong campaign, discuss the emo- 1:10–4:10 pm tional tangle of asking for money, confront the pressure of being accountable to General: $90 | Member: $81 an audience, and explore ways of using one's crowdfunding to bolster literary com- munity. Participants will leave with a clear sense of their own next steps in crowd- funding a creative life.
THE ART OF BOOK REVIEWING TESS TAYLOR All Levels | A good book review is a chance both to explore and name literary Three sessions pleasure and to offer another artist the gift of our attention. In this class, we will Wednesdays, April 14–28 discuss how to develop and craft a book review with care. We will read different 5–7 pm THE WRITING LIFE book reviews and learn to pitch and write our own, workshopping our material General: $180 | Member: $162 together, with an eye toward entering our own reviews in the literary ecosystem.
YOU’VE GOT TO GET YOUR WRITING LIFE ORGANIZED PAULETTE PERHACH All Levels | Is your writing life a junkyard of started projects, scattered notes, and One session misplaced ideas? Get it together with an afternoon organizing extravaganza. You’ll Sunday, May 2 get a free copy of The Writer’s Mission Control Center, a place to track everything 1:10–4:10 pm you need to keep straight over the life of your writing career, from your story ideas General: $90 | Member: $81 to your submissions to your reading list. We’ll set a solid foundation of organiza- tion for your writing future and free the rest of your brain for writing.
PUBLISHING INTENSIVE KAREN FINNEYFROCK, Intermediate/Advanced | This daylong intensive seminar will provide a compre- PETER MOUNTFORD, hensive overview of the publishing business and opportunities for writers of adult THEO NESTOR & GUESTS fiction, memoir, and young adult fiction. Students will have the opportunity to One session practice their elevator pitches in small groups. All students are required to write Saturday, May 8 a pitch (1–2 paragraphs) for their book before the intensive in order to partici- 10 am–5 pm pate in this small-group exercise. This class includes a lunch break as well as short General: $180 | Member: $162 breaks throughout the day. This class will include guest talks from literary agents and authors.
THE ART OF THE QUERY LETTER JENNIFER HAUPT Intermediate | Whether your goal is securing an agent for your book or querying Two sessions small presses directly, a stand-out query letter is essential. You only have one shot Tuesdays, June 1 & 8 so make it count with a concise, intriguing description of your book as well as a bio 5–7 pm that puts you in the best light possible. During the first session, we'll discuss and General: $120 | Member: $108 spend time crafting elements of the perfect query. During the second session, we'll workshop our queries.
25 THE ART OF INTERVIEWING NICOLE DIEKER Introductory | If you want to build your freelance career, you need to know how One session to interview. How do you find and interview a source when your editor wants your Saturday, June 5 draft by Friday? What questions should you avoid? What do you do when your 10 am–1 pm source wants to approve the interview before it’s published? This course will cover General: $90 | Member: $81 the mechanics of interviewing, including how to locate sources, how to prep the interview, and how to help your source feel comfortable during the process.
FREELANCE GOING PRO (ASYNCHRONOUS) PAULETTE PERHACH All Levels | If this is the year you’re ready to become a professional Twelve weeks freelance writer, now is the time to set yourself up for long-term success. Self-guided This 12-week self-guided course includes dozens of templates, workflows, and a Online digital organizational system that will help you become a creative business owner General: $350 | Member: $315 who knows how to land clients, create sustainable income, and find success. THE WRITING LIFE
HAVE A MANUSCRIPT THAT NEEDS SOME HELP?
Connect with one of our manuscript consultants—all experienced teachers and writers—to receive one-on-one guidance for your works-in-progress; applying for awards, residencies, or MFA programs; submitting to agents, magazines, or publishers; or other writerly concerns. Select consultants are also available for line- and copyediting services. To see the full list of consultants and services offered, visit bit.ly/manuscriptconsultants.
26 FREE RESOURCES
Check out a community class if you’ve never taken a writing class before and want to see what it’s all about, if you want to try a new genre or meet a new teacher, or if our regular class prices are prohibitive. The Quarantine Write-In and Write with Hugo House drop-in writing circles offer less instruction but a consistent, structured writing time to facilitate craft and community.
community classes
THE ANTI-RACIST WORKSHOP IN ACTION FELICIA ROSE CHAVEZ What does a constructive, equitable, anti-racist writing workshop look like? One session Imagine students rallying around one another, reading in service of the author’s Saturday, April 3 agenda, articulating constructive questions, and moderating their own feedback. 10–11:30 am In this interactive 90-minute session featuring personal story, freewriting exercises, Free and a model writing workshop in action, Felicia Rose Chavez will share anti-racist practices that can be used in all of our workshop classes. FREE RESOURCES
WRITING FROM YOUR OWN BACKYARD BONNIE J. ROUGH Since we’ve all been closer to home, we’ve had time to focus more attention on One session things nearby. Whether your “backyard” is a local P-patch, a balcony, a windowsill, Tuesday, April 6 or a patch of lawn with a garden gate, chances are you have recently tried or observed 5–7 pm something new in your domain. Maybe you sprouted seeds, started sourdough, Free foraged for mushrooms, adopted a pet, acquired house plants, or coexisted with a winter spider. How can these interactions with your own backyard can tell a deeper story? From this free nonfiction class, you’ll come away with a start on a new personal essay and bank of ideas for future writing. This class is offered in collaboration with 4Culture.
SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION WITH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS MERNA HECHT Picture books provide a diverse and abundantly rich resource for teaching social Two sessions justice in primary grades through high school. In this class, we’ll look at books Saturdays, April 10–24 that honor the courage, resilience and humanity of people who have fought [No class April 17] and continue to fight for social justice. We’ll explore books that address the 1:10–3:10 pm consequences of war for young people, current concerns connected to asylum Free seekers, immigration, and racial justice—and we’ll discuss how to speak about them for the purpose of widening global understandings, increasing awareness and compassion, and inspiring young people to shape a more just and humane world.
VER PARA CREAR ROSARIO LÓPEZ Tener una mirada particular es muy difícil, pero no imposible: es algo que se Una sesión entrena. Cada escritor es “observado” por sus cosas, que le llaman; es importante Sábado 17 de abril aprender a verlas. En el taller, exploraremos fuentes inagotables para encontrar 10 am–1 pm nuestra mirada y darle voz y luz, contarla. Es un taller para todos los niveles: Gratis para quienes quieren escribir y no saben cómo empezar, y para quienes tienen experiencia, pero no consiguen transmitir lo que desean. Es una clase práctica y dinámica, con lecturas, ejercicios de escritura y conversación. This class is offered in collaboration with Seattle Escribe. 27 WRITING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE LAURA DA’ All Levels | In this time of climate catastrophe, members of environmental One session justice groups are leading the charge to create a just transition toward a Sunday, April 18 regenerative and equitable world. One skill in their toolbox to create change is 1:10–4:10 pm storytelling. In this free Earth Day skills workshop, we will deepen this ability Free by practicing observational techniques. We’ll work to create place-snapshots of our communities or landscapes and take time to recenter from the hard work of activism through journaling. Students will leave with prompts for future writing. Guaranteed early registration will be given to members of local environmental justice groups and communities facing climate racism.
THE BIPOC WRITERS TOOLKIT: PROJECT MANAGE YOUR WRITING LIFE! D. A. NAVOTI This is a free course for writers in all genres who are Black, Indigenous, and/or Three sessions people of color (BIPOC). Are you unsure how to organize a literary project, Saturdays, May 1–15 like writing a book? Or do you need support organizing literary events, like a 1:10–3:10 pm reading? Do you feel you’ve outgrown your “to do” list and need a stronger system Free of organization and accountability? In this course, students will learn project management principles, like creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), defining a project scope, estimating project costs (yes, even writing a book accrues out-of-pocket expenses!), identifying project threats, scheduling tasks and meeting deadlines, and allocating resources to support your needs. This course is open to writers and creative nonprofit managers, and it’s a great opportunity to network with your literary community. Students will walk away with a work plan they can successfully launch on their own.
lunch break q&as
These free, open sessions are intended to highlight our talented teachers and create points of access for the community to established, working writers, agents, and editors.
FREE RESOURCES ASK AN AGENT KELLI MARTIN Kelli Martin began her book publishing career over twenty years ago. She Tuesday, April 13 started at Simon & Schuster and rose up the editorial ladder at HarperCollins, 12–1 pm Harlequin, and Amazon Publishing. Now a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Free Associates, Kelli is passionate about signing writers in commercial women’s fiction, including contemporary romance, romantic suspense, love stories, romantic comedies, suspense fiction, psychological thrillers, family dramas, friendship dramas, beach reads, and women-coming-into-their-own stories. For Kelli, guiding writers, perfecting manuscripts and building a list of beloved books that satisfy publishing houses and readers are the loves of her life.
28 ASK AN EDITOR DAPHNE DURHAM Executive editor at MCDxFSG, Daphne came to Farrar, Straus and Giroux Tuesday, May 11 after more than fifteen years at Amazon.com. In her roles as editor-in-chief 12–1 pm and publisher for Amazon Publishing, Daphne launched and developed Free core genre imprints, managed acquisitions across all categories, including genre, literary fiction, and children’s books, and created Amazon’s first digital literary journal, Day One. At FSG, she publishes Ryan Gattis, Liska Jacobs, Araminta Hall, Kristi Coulter, Shirley Barrett, Katrina Carrasco, Rachel Selfon, Andy Davidson, and Sara Sligar, among others.
ASK A POET RICK BAROT Rick Barot is the author of a chapbook and four books of poetry, most Tuesday, June 8 recently The Galleons (Milkweed Editions, 2020). The New York Public 12–1 pm Library named The Galleonsa top ten poetry book of 2020, and it was Free a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards and longlisted for the National Book Award. Barot’s work has appeared in FREE RESOURCES numerous publications, including Poetry, the Paris Review, the New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry 2012, 2016, and 2020, and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Artist Trust of Washington, and elsewhere. Barot is the poetry editor of New England Review and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University.
drop-in writing circles
QUARANTINE WRITE-IN ROTATING INSTRUCTORS Join us at this free weekly write-in via Zoom where you’ll get writing prompts, Weekly on Thursdays time to write, and the opportunity to connect with other writers. 5:30–6:30 pm Free April: Luther Hughes, author of A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions, 2022) and Founder of Shade Literary Arts, has work published in Poetry, Paris Review, the Rumpus, and other places. He received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis.
May: Danielle Mohlman is a nationally produced playwright and an alumna of Playwrights’ Arena at Arena Stage and the Umbrella Project Writers Group. She is a proud graduate of both Cal Poly Pomona and Emerson College.
June: Rena Priest is the recipient of an American Book Award and a 2020 Allied Arts Professional Poets Award. Her work can be found in For Love of Orcas, Poetry Northwest, High Country News, and elsewhere.
WRITE WITH HUGO HOUSE ROTATING INSTRUCTORS Looking for ongoing inspiration, feedback, and ways to connect with other Monthly writers? Attend one of these monthly drop-in writing circles, presented in 6–7:30 pm partnership with the Seattle Public Library. For the time being, Write with Free Hugo House sessions take place virtually, on Zoom. For schedule information, visit bit.ly/WriteHugoHouse.
29 other free resources
Join us for one of our free events—we host hundreds every year!—including the popular quarantine addition, the Solitude Social Club. Sign up for our eNewsletter or check our website or social media regularly for new and ongoing opportunities.
Receive writing guidance and advice from one of our writers-in-residence, free of charge. Writers-in-residence are available for appointments through June 15, 2021. For more information, visit hugohouse.org, or write to one of our residents at the emails below.
Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and The Institute of American Indian Arts. Da’ is Eastern Shawnee. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Artist Trust, Hugo House, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. Her first book, Tributaries, won the 2016 American Book Award. Her newest book is Instruments of the True Measure, published by the University of Arizona Press. Laura’s schedule is booked for 2021. Poets in need of consultation should look
POETRY to our manuscript consultants for assistance.
Ruth Joffre is the author of the story collection Night Beast, which was longlisted for The Story Prize. Her fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, the Masters Review, Lightspeed, Nashville Review, and elsewhere. Her months-long interview series with the authors, editors, and curators of craft books, essays, and resources is freely available on the Kenyon Review blog. A graduate of Cornell University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ruth lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Hugo House and co- organizes the Fight for Our Lives performance series. To schedule an appointment, email [email protected] PROSE FREE RESOURCES
DID YOU KNOW?
The Hugo House blog has free mini-lessons and exercises from Hugo teachers, as well as interviews with writers in our community. Check them out at hugohouse.org/blog
30 Dilruba Ahmed is the author of Bring Liza Birnbaum’s work has appeared in Web Nicola DeRobertis-Theye’s debut novel Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry, 2020). Her Conjunctions, jubilat, Open Letters Monthly, The Vietri Project will be published in March debut book of poetry, Dhaka Dust (Graywolf and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Big 2021 by Harper. She was an Emerging Press), won the Bakeless Prize. Her poems Big Wednesday and holds an MFA from the Writing Fellow at the New York Center for have appeared in New England Review and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Fiction, and her work has been published in the New York Times Magazine. Agni, Electric Literature, and LitHub. Margarita Borrero is a novelist and a Naa Akua is a Ghanaian-Bajan queer poet short story writer. She has taught creative Nicole Dieker has been a full-time and educator. A WITS writer-in-residence writing at Madrid’s Escuela de Escritores for freelance writer since 2012, with a focus on and a teaching artist for Young Women over a decade. She graduated suma cum laude personal finance and habit formation. Her Empowered and Hugo House, they were a in European Literature from Universidad work has been published in Vox, Lifehacker, Citizen University poet-in-residence and Autónoma de Madrid. Her doctoral thesis Popular Science, and more. Gregory Award-winning actor for their role was on Gabriel García Márquez. in Citizen: An American Lyric. Elisabeth Eaves is the author of Wan- Sara Brickman is a queer Jewish writer derlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents Jordan Alam is a queer Bangladeshi- reckoning with ghosts and time travel. Their and Bare: the Naked Truth about Stripping. American writer, performer, and therapist work appears in Narrative, Adroit Journal, Her work has appeared in The Best American based out of Seattle. Jordan has performed and Ghosts of Seattle Past. Sara holds an Travel Writing, the New Yorker, the New and facilitated on embodied writing MFA from the University of Virginia and is York Times, Wired, and elsewhere. nationwide. Their work has appeared in a Lambda Literary Artist Fellow. ABOUT OUR TEACHERS the Atlantic, Seattle Met, Autostraddle, and Suzanne Edison’s most recent chapbook CultureStrike, among others. Kim Brown Seely’s recent memoir, is The Body Lives Its Undoing. Other poems Uncharted (Sasquatch Books / Penguin are found in Michigan Quarterly Review, the Steve Almond is the author of ten books, Random House, 2019), received a Nautilus Naugatuck River Review, Intima: A Journal including the New York Times bestsellers award and was named one of the “best books of Narrative Medicine, and Mom Egg Review. Candyfreak (Harvest Books, 2004) and of 2019” by the Wall Street Journal. She is a 2019 Hedgebrook alumna. Against Football. His newest book is William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life. Sharon Bryan is the author of four books John Englehardt is the author of Bloom- of poems, most recently Flying Blind and land, winner of the Dzanc Prize for Fiction Anastacia-Reneé is a writer, workshop Sharp Stars. She teaches in the low-residency and the 2020 VCU Cabell First Novelist facilitator, and multivalent performance MFA Program at Lesley University in Award. A former Hugo Fellow, he holds an artist. Author of three books: Forget It Cambridge, Massachusetts. MFA from the University of Arkansas. (Black Radish Books, 2017), (v.) (Gramma Press, 2017), and Answer(Me) (Argus Press, Felicia Rose Chavez is author of The Karen Finneyfrock is the author of 2017). Anti-Racist Writing Workshop and co-editor two young adult novels: The Sweet Revenge of The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT of Celia Door (Speak, 2013) and Starbird Tara Atkinson is the author of Bedtime with Willie Perdomo and Jose Olivarez. Murphy and the World Outside. She is a Stories (Alice Blue Books) and Boyfriends. She serves as the Creativity and Innovation former writer-in-residence at Hugo House She holds a BA in English from the Univer- Scholar-in-Residence at Colorado College. and teaches for the WITS program. sity of Iowa and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. Anna Clark is the author of The Poisoned Gail Folkins writes about her deep roots City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban in the American West. She is the author of Elizabeth Austen, former Washing- Tragedy (Metropolitan Books, 2018), which Light in the Trees, named a 2016 Foreword ton State Poet Laureate, is the author of was named one of the year’s best books by INDIES finalist in the nature category, and Every Dress a Decision (Blue Begonia Press) the Washington Post, the San Francisco Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit. and two chapbooks. Poems from her next Chronicle, Kirkus Reviews, and others. collection-in-progress appeared recently in Gabriela Denise Frank is a literary the New England Review and Spirited Stone: Tara Conklin is the author of The House artist whose work appears in storefronts, Lessons from Kubota’s Garden. Girl and The Last Romantics (William libraries, magazines, podcasts, and more. Morrow), both New York Times bestsellers. Her writing has been featured in Hunger Russell Banks is a member of the The Last Romantics was a Barnes & Noble Mountain, Baltimore Review, Crab Creek International Parliament of Writers and a Book Club Pick, IndieNext Pick, and was Review, the Normal School, and the Rumpus. member of the American Academy of Arts selected by Jenna Bush Hager as the first and Letters. His work includes Dreaming up read for The Today Show Book Club. Alma García has taught fiction at Hugo America and the novels Continental Drift, House since 2007. Her short fiction has Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. She is been published in Narrative, Passages North, Hereafter, and Affliction. Eastern Shawnee. Her first book,Tributaries , Boulevard, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA won the American Book Award, and her from the University of Arizona. Stephanie Barbé Hammer is the author latest, Instruments of the True Measure, won of Sex with Buildings (dancing girl press), the Washington State Book Award. Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet is the author How Formal? (Spout Hill Press), and The of The Greenhouseand Tulips, Water, Ash. Puppet Turners of the Interior (Urban Kimberly Dark is the author of Fat, Pret- In addition to teaching in Seattle, Portland, Farmhouse Press). ty and Soon to be Old; The Daddies; and Love and San Francisco, she hosts the Portland and Errors. Her work is widely published in reading series Lilla Lit and Literary Bingo. Gabrielle Bates works for Open Books: academic and online publications alike. A Poem Emporium and cohosts the pod- Nicole Hardy is the author of the memoir cast The Poet Salon. Her poems and poetry Jennifer De Leon is author of Don’t Ask Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin and the comics have appeared or are forthcoming Me Where I’m From, White Space: Essays on poetry collections This Blonde and Mud Flap in the New Yorker, Poetry, American Poetry Culture, Race, & Writing, and editor of Wise Girl’s XX Guide to Facial Profiling, a chap- Review, among other venues. Latinas. book of pop-culture inspired sonnets.
31 Tara Hardy, 2017 Washington State Book Sasha LaPointe is a Coast Salish author Susan V. Meyers directs Seattle Award winner, is a former Hugo House from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian University’s creative writing program. Her writer-in-residence, Seattle Poet Populist, tribes. She received her MFA from the first novel, Failing the Trapeze, won the and Hedgebrook alumna. She teaches for Institute of American Indian Arts and her Nilsen Award. She has received grants from University Beyond Bars, Hugo House, Path memoir Red Paint is forthcoming by Coun- the Fulbright foundation, the National with Art, Evergreen State College, and terpoint Press in 2021. She lives in Tacoma, Endowment for the Humanities, 4Culture, Seattle’s LGBTQ Center. Washington. Artist Trust, and several artists’ residencies.
Jennifer Haupt’s debut novel, In the David Lasky is the co-creator of Carter Danielle Mohlman is a nationally pro- Shadow of 10,000 Hills, won an Indie Award Family: Don’t Forget This Song, which won duced playwright based in Seattle, WA. She for Historical Fiction. Her second novel, comics’ Eisner Award. is an alumna of Playwrights’ Arena at Arena Come as You Are, will be published in 2022. Stage and the Umbrella Project Writers She has also ghostwritten memoir and pub- Kate Lebo is the author of The Book of Group. She is a proud graduate of both Cal lished essays in many publications. Difficult Fruit (FSG, 2021) and co-editor of Poly Pomona and Emerson College. Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence Merna Ann Hecht is the founder of the of Butter and Booze (Sasquatch Books). Her Peter Mountford’s novel A Young Refugee & Immigrant Youth Voices Poetry essay “The Loudproof Room” appeared in Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism (Mariner Project. A recipient of 4Culture and other The Best American Essays 2015. Books, 2011) won a 2012 Washington State grants, she is a former children’s librarian Book Award. His second novel, The Dismal with a background in using literature for Anne Liu Kellor’s essays have appeared Science, was published by Tin House Books promoting peace and diversity education. in Longreads, Witness, New England Review, in 2014. He is on faculty at Sierra Nevada Entropy, Fourth Genre, Normal School, and College’s low-residency MFA program. Ann Hedreen is an author (Her Beautiful more. She has received residencies from Brain), teacher, and filmmaker. Ann has Seventh Wave, Hedgebrook, 4Culture, and Shankar Narayan explores identity, written for 3rd Act Magazine, About Place, Jack Straw. Her memoir, Heart Radical, is power, mythology, and technology in a world and other publications, including her forthcoming in fall 2021. where the body is flung across borders yet award-winning blog, The Restless Nest. She possesses unrivaled power to transcend them. recently finished a second memoir. Rosario López is a writer, journalist, editor, and teacher. Author of Los besos D.A. Navoti’s work has appeared in Ho- DaMaris B. Hill, PhD, is the author of secos (Bala Perdida, 2020), finalist of mology Lit, Spartan, Indian Country Today, three books—most recently, A Bound Wom- the International Novel Award City of Cloudthroat, and elsewhere. A former Hugo an Is a Dangerous Thing(Bloomsbury, 2019), Barbastro, 2019. She teaches creative writing Fellow, Navoti is cofounder of Fight for Our a searing and powerful narrative-in-verse at Escuela de Escritores in Madrid, Spain. Lives, a performance series advocating for that bears witness to American women of communities targeted by divisive politics. color burdened by incarceration. Cari Luna is the author of The Revolution of Every Day, which won the Oregon Book Theo Pauline Nestor is the author of Bruce Holbert is the author of several Award for Fiction. Her writing has appeared Writing is My Drink (Simon & Schuster, pieces of short fiction, as well as three novels: in the Nation, Guernica, Salon, Jacobin, 2013) and How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Lonesome Animals, The Hour of Lead, and Electric Literature, Catapult, the Rumpus, Bed: A Memoir of Starting Over (Crown, Whiskey. PANK, and elsewhere. 2008). She has taught the memoir certificate course for the UW’s professional & continu- Elise Hooper is the author of three novels Rebecca Makkai is the author of four ing education program since 2006. including The Other Alcott, Learning to See, books, most recently The Great Believers, and Fast Girls. She has an MA in teaching which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Russ Nickel works as a screenwriter in Los and has taught literature, history, and and the National Book Award. Makkai is on Angeles. His first feature film, Bear with Us, writing to teenagers and adults throughout the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada College is available on Amazon Prime and DVD, the Puget Sound. and Northwestern University, and she is and his series, Stellar People, is slated to artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago. be released soon. He teaches at Chapman Darien Hsu Gee is the author of five University and Belmont University. novels published by Penguin Random Corinne Manning’s story collection House that have been translated into eleven We Had No Rules has received reviews from Michelle Peñaloza is the author of languages. Her recent collection of micro Booklist and Publishers Weekly, the latter Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, memoirs, Allegiance, about growing up noting it “examines queer relationships with winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk
ABOUT OUR TEACHERS Chinese American, was an Editor’s Pick for equal parts humor, heartache, and titillation.” National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, BookLife (Publisher’s Weekly). They have taught for Hugo House since 2011. 2019), and the chapbooks, landscape/heart- break (Two Sylvias) and Last Night I Dreamt Ruth Joffre is the author of the story Wryly T. McCutchen is a hybrid writer, of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts). collection Night Beast. Her work has ap- interdisciplinary performer, community peared or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, educator, and 2018 LAMBDA Fellow in Paulette Perhach has written for the Lightspeed, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, the poetry. Their work has appeared inFoglifter , New York Times, Marie Claire, and McSwee- Masters Review, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She Papeachu Review, and Nat. Brut. Their col- ney’s Internet Tendency. Poets & Writers is prose writer-in-residence at Hugo House. lection, My Ugly and Other Love Snarls, was selected her book, Welcome to the Writer’s published in 2017. Life, as one of its Best Books for Writers. Jacqueline Kolosov’s essays, stories, and hybrid pieces have appeared in venues such Robin McLean’s collection Reptile House Lola E. Peters serves as editor-at-large for as Shenandoah, Terrain.org, the Southern won the BOA Fiction Prize and was named the South Seattle Emerald and freelance op- Review, and Cimarron Review. She has pub- a best book of 2015 in Paris Review. She’s ed columnist for Crosscut. She has published lished five YA & cross-genre novels, among taught writing at Clark University, in Crete, two collections of poems, Taboos and The them The Red Queen’s Daughter(Hyperion, Prague, Portugal, and Nevada’s high desert. Book of David, and The Truth About White 2007), and three collections of poetry. People, collected essays on racism.
32 Cody Pherigo is a queer writing animal Michael Shilling is the author of Rock Aimee Suzara is a Filipino-American who earned an MFA from Goddard College Bottom. He has taught at Seattle University, poet, playwright, and performer. Her and an editing certificate from UW. He be- the University of Michigan, and the publications include her book, Souvenir lieves that the best education comes through University of Puget Sound. He's working (2014), Poem-a-Day, and two anthologies; relational and experiential learning in a on a novel involving the crabs of Christmas her theater work is commissioned by Cutting loving and respectful community. Island. Ball Theater for a new work in 2021–22.
Rena Priest is the recipient of an Amer- Leah Silvieus is the author of the poetry Tess Taylor is the poetry critic for NPR’s ican Book Award and a 2020 Allied Arts collections Anemochory (Hyacinth Girl All Things Considered and a columnist for Professional Poets Award. Her work can be Press, 2016), Season of Dares (Bull City CNN. She is the author of three books, all found in For Love of Orcas, Poetry Northwest, Press, 2018), and Arabilis (Sundress Publica- from Red Hen Press—Rift Zone (2020); High Country News, and elsewhere. tions, 2019) and coeditor with Lee Herrick Work & Days (2016), named one of the of the anthology The World I Leave You: best poetry books of 2016 by the New York Naseem Rakha has been the recipient Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit. Times; and The Forage House (2013). of AP awards for her writing on the environment. Her novel, The Crying Tree, Emily Skillings is the author of the poet- Anna Vodicka’s essays have appeared in has been published in eleven languages. ry collection Fort Not and two chapbooks, AFAR, Brevity, Guernica, Harvard Review, Backchannel and Linnaeus: The 26 Sexual Longreads, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Evan Roxanna Ramzipoor is a writer Practices of Plants. Recent poems can be Paste, and Best Women’s Travel Writing. She based in California. She is the author of found in , , , and has earned residency fellowships to Vermont The Poetry Harper’s Boston Review ABOUT OUR TEACHERS Ventriloquists from Park Row Books(Harper - jubilat. She has taught at Yale, Columbia, Studio Center and Hedgebrook. Collins), and her work has been featured in Parsons, and other places. McSweeney’s, Salon, and others. Jeanine Walker holds a PhD in creative Judith Skillman is the recipient of awards writing from the University of Houston. Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster from Academy of American Poets and Artist Her poetry collection Diagram of Parts is Child (Bloomsbury USA), The Still Point of Trust. Her recent collection is The Truth forthcoming from Groundhog Poetry Press. the Turning World (Penguin Press), Sanctu- About Our American Births (Shanti Arts, Her poems have appeared in Chattahoochee ary (Random House), and Frida Kahlo and 2020). Poems have appeared in the Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. My Left Leg(New York Review of Books). Review, Threepenny Review, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. Miranda Weiss is the author of Tide, Julie Romeis Sanders has over 20 years Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska (Harper, of experience in children’s books. She col- Beth Slattery is a writer, editor, and writ- 2009), a PNW bestseller. Her writing has laborated with award-winning authors and ing coach whose work has appeared in Assay: appeared in the Atlantic, the Economist, the illustrators as an editor for two major pub- A Journal of Nonfiction Studies and Southern Washington Post, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. lishers. She now works as a freelance editor. Women’s Review. Before moving to Seattle, she taught creative writing for eighteen years Lisa Wells is the author of Believers: Bonnie J. Rough is the award-winning at Indiana University East. Making a Life at the End of the World (FSG, author of Beyond Birds and Bees (2018); The 2021) and The Fix (2018), winner of the Iowa Girls, Alone (2015); Carrier (2010); and Kim Stafford is the author of a dozen Poetry Prize. Her work appears in the New numerous literary essays and articles. She has books of poetry and prose, including Early York Times, Harper’s, Granta, and elsewhere. taught creative writing since 2003 and loves Morning: Remembering My Father, William working with writers at every level. Stafford(Graywolf Press, 2002). He teaches Joe Wilkins is the author of the novel writing and cultural inquiry at Lewis & Fall Back Down When I Die, short-listed SassyBlack is a multifaceted creative with Clark College in Portland, Oregon. for the First Novel Award, and the memoir a focus in the performing and literary arts. A The Mountain and the Fathers, winner of a goddess of “psychedelic soul” & “hologram Katherine E. Standefer is the author GLCA New Writers Award. funk,” she explores sound through deep elec- of Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover tronic compositions. Her music can be heard the Cost of Saving a Life, featured by O, the Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author on Michelle Obama’s Spotify playlist. Oprah Magazine and NPR’s Fresh Air. Her of Meadow Slasher, Bad Woods, Selenogra- work appeared in The Best American Essays phy, The Book of Whispering in the Projection Caitlin Scarano is a writer based in 2016. She lives in New Mexico. Booth, and many other works. Anacortes, Washington. She holds a PhD in English and an MFA in poetry. Her hybrid J. Ryan Stradal is the author of the New Deborah Woodard is a poet and transla- chapbook, The Hatchet and the Hammer, was York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great tor living in Seattle. Her most recent books recently released by Ricochet Editions. Midwest and the instant national bestseller are No Finis: Triangle Testimonies, 1911 The Lager Queen of Minnesota. Born and (Ravenna Press) and Obtuse Diary, from the Annesha Sengupta is a graduate of the raised in Minnesota, he now lives with his Italian of Amelia Rosselli (Entre Rios Books). Helen Zell Writers’ Program. Her work family in California. appears in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Geraldine Woods is the author of more American Short Fiction, Catapult, the Greg Stump is the author of Disillusioned than 50 books, most recently 25 Great Sen- Kenyon Review, and more. She has received Illusions (Fantagraphics Books, 2015). He tences and How They Got That Way(Norton, fellowships from Kundiman and the Bread has taught comics to students of all ages for 2020). She has taught writing and close Loaf Writers’ Conference. two decades. reading for four decades.
Zain Shamoon completed his PhD in Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum is the Carolyne Wright’s latest book is This human development and family studies. He author of What We Do with the Wreckage, Dream the World: New & Selected Poems has also been a competitive slam poet. Cur- the 2017 Flannery O’Connor Award in (Lost Horse Press, 2017). She has 16 earlier rently, Zain is a graduate school professor at Short Fiction winner (UGA Press, 2018). books and anthologies of poetry, essays, and Antioch University Seattle. She is the recipient of an O. Henry Prize and translation, and has received a 2020–2021 a Jack Straw Writers Program fellowship. Fulbright Scholar Award to Bahia, Brazil.
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