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.