I'm happy to announce many ways you can practice the art of creative writing with me as your guide. In Summer 2023 I’ll be facilitating a 5-week Writers’ Lab over Zoom - join us from anywhere! - as well as teaching two youth classes for folks in grades 6-12. All details below. I also continue to offer one-on-one private creative writing coaching and mentorship.
Summer 2023:
city extension: writers' lab
remote over zoom - Join us from anywhere!
5 tuesday EVENINGS, 6/6/23 - 7/11/23 (no class 7/4)
6:00-8:00 PM pacific time
$225 (use code summer2023 for 15% off)
Both fiction writers and poets are welcome in the Lab, where we come together as practicing writers, each of us bringing our works-in-progress or starting something new. Part of each workshop session is reserved for simply writing together, giving us structure and discipline to work on our projects in virtual community. Don't have an ongoing project, or need a break from yours? Additional weekly prompts will be offered for you to work with during Writing Time. We also do a generative "warmup" creative writing exercise each session to help us stretch our creativity and words in new directions. We look to published works for inspiration, and talk about issues of craft and narrative as they arise, tailoring these conversations and skill-building to meet participants’ needs. Those who have taken previous creative writing workshops are welcome here, as is anyone who wants to get some writing done in a partially-self-directed, virtual-yet-community-based setting. Please note the Lab is repeatable, so if you were in a previous Lab, you're welcome to come again.
Click here to register for the Summer Lab!
Summer 2023:
city extension: youth workshops
remote over zoom - Join us from anywhere!
the secret lives of things: writing from objects
M-f 6/12-6/16/2023, 9:00am-11:30am PST, $50 - details and registration here
The world in a thimble: Short-Form Creative Writing
M-F 7/10-7/14/2023, 1:00pm-3:30pm PST, $50 - details and registration here
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private one-on-one creative writing coaching and mentorship
Please visit my coaching page for details on how to work with me one-on-one!
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Scroll down to see past courses
previous classes:
fall 2022:
city extension (city college of San francisco):
The World in a Thimble: Short-Form Creative Writing
remote over zoom - Join us from anywhere!
5 wednesday EVENINGS, 9/28/22 - 10/26/22
6:00-8:00 PM pacific time
In this class, we'll explore the power of short forms: prose poetry, flash fiction, flash essay. This class is open to writers of prose as well as poets: Some of what we'll explore here is the notion of "hybridity," or Sphinx-like, in-between genre spaces that operate partially like poetry and partially like prose. We'll explore more deeply how we are defining the line between prose and poetry. We'll look at how big concepts can get distilled into a page or two of fiction or personal essay. While most of what we'll do in this class will emphasize the Sentence as our primary mode of syntactical construction, we will also do a bit of exploration with short-form lineated poetry: haiku, haibun, and tanka. We'll read some (surprise!) short craft essays on short forms as well as many published creative works to help deepen our understanding. Give your big writing projects a breather and enjoy completing at least one short piece per week! Small is beautiful. Small is big. All skill levels welcome.
winter 2022:
city college of San francisco:
Writing as a pathway back to self and Center
remote over zoom - Join us from anywhere!
5 THURSday EVENINGS, 2/17/22-3/17/22
6:00-8:00 PM pacific time
This 5-week live online course will take us back to the roots of why we became writers in the first place. Many of us (your instructor included) may have come to the practice of writing by journaling; by letting words guide us to deeper truths about our lives. Over time we (including your instructor) may have come to identify as "poets" or "fiction writers" or "memoirists" or "essayists"--which is all well and good!-- but sometimes, we start placing overemphasis on product over process; on identity over growth. These pandemic years have certainly shifted so much for all of us. Let's come together to go back to the roots of "writing as truth; writing as growth." Through guided prompts, we'll work with words to come closer to who we are, and to reconnect to ourselves as we emerge into spring 2022. We will also explore the interstitial space of how process does in fact become product, taking the raw material from our explorations and structuring it into polished piece(s) of writing.
city college of San francisco:
The secret lives of things: writing from objects
remote over zoom -Join us from anywhere!
5 Thursday EVENINGS, 6/15/21-7/17/21
Look around you: you are surrounded by things. Yet in one light, things do not exist. Everything around us is made from an interplay of forces, ideas, other things, personal or cultural memories, necessity, time. We will play with these storied and poetic aspects of materiality, going deep into the secret lives of things, and letting them be our guides as we create new writing. Creative writers of all genres are welcome; this an interdisciplinary workshop and you’ll be able to tailor most exercises to the genre of your choice.
city college of San francisco: The MYTHOPOLITICAL
remote over zoom -Join us from anywhere!
5 Thursday EVENINGS, 11/5/20-12/10/20 (no class 11/26)
"We take a step outside of time, renouncing our urgency, giving up our plans and allow ourselves to be danced, to be sung, to be told like a story in its most vulnerable part of the arc." - Toko-pa Turner
In this time of pandemic, the work we do in the outer world has either changed form, disappeared, or become more intense/high-risk. Political issues have been highlighted from every angle; systems are crumbling and will need to be rebuilt; and yet simultaneously, much of our lives are collectively "on hold". This time of greater isolation is also undoubtably a period of inner work — which some have called a collective initiation.
While our rational brains tend to slot activism and our dreambodies into different categories, what happens when we decide they are integrated? And what happens when we write from that place of integration? Storytellers, poets, and mystics have always had the capacity to bridge the political with the more mysterious aspects of humanity, should they choose.
Together, we will discuss short weekly readings (poetry, short stories/novel excerpts, and essays - Linda Hogan, Octavia Butler, Ursula Leguin, and beyond) that are working to bridge the mythic with the political. We will do small organic rituals together as citizens of the earth, practice self-care and dream-body awareness, and write from a place that seeks to bridge inner and outer worlds. All genres of writers welcome; artists working in other mediums who want to practice inside what is essentially billed as a creative writing class can likely find value here too, should the theme resonate. Come gather with us a whole person and use your creativity to better understand your mythopolitics. Let's practice together, so that when the world really reopens, we can offer it more of our integrated selves.
Please note this class has a progressive and intersectional orientation; when we talk about politics we are talking about making the world a more equitable and ecological place. Do not join this class if your politics are rooted in division, denial, supremacy, or hate, as you will be asked to leave the community without refund.
Workshops are taught online through Zoom and Canvas. Students will need a computer or smart phone with webcam and microphone, internet and web streaming capacity, and the Zoom application installed to their device. Please also bring pen and paper to each session.
This class is offered through CCSF but is open to anyone and is not for academic credit.
city college of San francisco: writers' lab
(many sessions, LIVE AND VIRTUAL, since 2015!)
Both fiction writers and poets are welcome in this five-session course. We’ll come together as practicing writers, each of us bringing our works-in-progress to the lab. One hour or more of each session is reserved for simply writing together, giving us structure and discipline to work on our existing projects in community. We’ll also do in-class generative creative writing exercises to help us stretch our words in new directions. We’ll talk about issues of craft as they arise, tailoring these conversations and skill-building to meet the needs of the participants in the group. Those who have taken previous creative writing classes are welcome here, as is anyone who wants to get some writing done this summer in a partially-self-directed, community-based setting. Please note the Lab is repeatable, so if you were in a previous Lab, you're welcome to come again--same format, fresh exercises.
City College of San Francisco: poetry workshop
In this poetry workshop we will produce new poems and discuss one another's work. We'll read and discuss a variety of 20th and 21st-century poetry, and play with experimental writing exercises designed to bring you fresh inspiration, new vision, and creative breakthrough. We'll explore form, sound, imagery, and line as we work together as a community of poets. (Please note class dates were shifted ahead 2 weeks from the original advertised start date; correct start date is 10/29.)
city college of San francisco: intermediate fiction writing
This class is open to students who have taken WR101 or those who have previous creative writing experience. We continue the model of WR101, doing experimental in-class exercises and reading published works each week to help us refine our skills and find new directions. We'll explore setting, emotion, and character motivation, and get more deeply attuned to our own creative choices and voice. Finally, the class operates like a writers’ workshop, where each writer has the opportunity (highly encouraged at this level but not mandatory) to share a story and receive feedback.
city college of San francisco: the craft of fiction
This fiction class will offer you many tools you can use on your path as a writer. We’ll read and discuss contemporary short stories to see how great fiction is crafted. We’ll do weekly in-class writing exercises designed to stretch the way you look at dialogue, character, imagery, setting, point of view, language, style, and tone. You'll have the opportunity to work on crafting a story both inside and outside of our class meetings, and to receive informal feedback from the instructor and from your peers. Come to this highly creative laboratory to up your skills, produce work, and enjoy being part of a community of writers.
the art of wandering: Two Workshops at Liminal
two sundays, october 8 and 22nd, 2017, 3-6pm - take both or just one
The Art of Wandering (I): October 8
Are wandering and creativity linked? A recent Stanford study says yes. In this workshop, we’ll practice “creative tracking,” synching our inner and outer landscapes as we move through the streets around Liminal. In participating in this practice, we become part of the creative lineage of the artist as urban wanderer, which includes the work of the Situationists, Rebecca Solnit, and the archetype of the flâneur or flâneuse (as recently regendered by writer/scholar Lauren Elkin). Also present here is an element of vision quest practice, where we view the land as a site for exchange between human and nonhuman.Participants will be given a guided framework for their infogathering practice in the field. Back in the workshop space, we’ll each piece together our urban gleanings into a cohesive piece of writing, and have time to share our experiences.
The Art of Wandering (II): October 22
This three-hour workshop complements the prior course “The Art of Wandering (I),” but can be taken independently. In this second exploration of the artist/wanderer archetype, we’ll be tracking how micro-environments might create or hold shared psychic traces. As such, our work will involve both solo and collaborative elements. We'll work in partners or teams: The writing we do in the field will be solo, but our work back at Liminal will be collaborative. Come with a curiosity to push beyond the boundaries of the myth of the solitary artist.
Accessibility: These workshops involve wandering at street-level, whether on foot, by chair, or via any other ambulatory-assistive device. Approximately 60-90 minutes will be spent “in the field” in a combination of motion and observational stillness. Please note you will also be quietly but visibly entering the fabric of the public space of the Liminal neighborhood, a non-gentrified part of Oakland. It may be helpful—though not required—to bring a smartphone with GPS/Maps.
To learn more about Liminal, "The First Feminist and Womanist Writing Space": www.oaklandliminal.com/about-1/