Writespace Writing Center
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        • Nick Almeida
        • Tanya Aydelott
        • Nyri Bakkalian
        • Andreana Binder
        • Mackenzie Bitz
        • Joyce Boatright
        • Julia Brown
        • Kartika Budhwar
        • Debbie Burns
        • Joe Burns
        • Sean Morrisey Carroll
        • Cynthia Childress
        • Cassandra Rose Clarke
        • Jessica Cole
        • Mark Dostert
        • Emily Foxhall
        • Ynes Freeman
        • Rosa Boshier González
        • Mark Haber
        • Matthew Hefti
        • Sarah Gajkowski-Hill
        • Adam Holt
        • Angélique Jamail
        • Justin Jannise
        • Marlena Johns
        • Amal Kassir
        • Karleen Koen
        • Mike Kowis, Esq.
        • Kendra Preston Leonard
        • Phuc Luu
        • Lorenzo Martinez
        • Thomas H McNeely
        • Jasminne Mendez
        • Ülrika Moats
        • Jody T. Morse
        • Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
        • Kinza Muzahir
        • Patricia Flaherty Pagan
        • Kate Pentecost
        • Kathryn Peterson
        • Joy Preble
        • Paige Quiñones
        • Icess Fernandez Rojas
        • ire'ne lara silva
        • Tamara Nicholl-Smith
        • Courtney O'Banion Smith
        • Rebecca Spears
        • Patrick Stockwell
        • Victoria Strange
        • Marian Szczepanski
        • Catherine Vance
        • Juan Fernando Villagómez
        • Holly Walrath
        • Charlotte Wyatt
        • D.L. Young
        • Theodora Ziolkowski
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Writers' Family Reunion Returns!

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TIME: Friday night Mixer and Open Mic: October 27, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. CST and Saturday, Writers' Family Reunion: October 28, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird price: $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Wednesday, October 11. After Wednesday, October 11: $35 for members, $50 for nonmembers. Become a member here.
LOCATION: Sabine Street Studios, 1907 Sabine Street, Houston, TX 77007 (map)
LEVEL: All levels
The Writers' Family Reunion is a weekend event designed to help you find your writing community and successfully navigate life as a writer. Along with opportunities to meet local writers, attending writers will have the opportunity to discover fantastic local literary resources and participate in workshops, roundtables, and panels All levels and all genres are welcome. At WFR you can form new friendships while deepening your knowledge of writing craft and the publishing industry.
Your ticket will include:
  • Admittance to the Friday night Mixer, Open Mic, and Book Fair
  • Saturday Conference
  • Keynote with Texas Poet Laureate ire'ne lara silva
  • Panels
  • Roundtables
  • Critique Group Speed Dating
  • First page feedback sessions with Writespace editors
  • Vendor Fair
Several hour long workshops will also take place on Saturday. Workshops are TBD and will require separate registration as space per workshop is limited. Attendees will receive an email as workshops are created. 

We have a studio in Sabine Street Studios!
We need art for the walls!

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Announcing the ​Writespace Artist in Residence Program

Application is open 9/1/23 - 11/1/23. Residency starts 1/1/24. 

Writespace is seeking artists to collaborate for our new studio location at Sabine Street Studios. The Writespace artist-in-residence program supports a local artist by displaying their work in the Writespace studio for a period of 6-12 months. Artists residents receive a free consultation with a Writespace editor of their biography and artist statement. Artist residents are also invited to host a workshop on a topic of their choosing suitable for writers.
Apply for Artist Residency

Our Next Workshop

Gentle Generative with an Autumnal Twist

INSTRUCTOR: Kendra Preston Leonard
TIME: Saturday, September 30, 9:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, September 24. After Monday, September 25: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All levels
CAP: 15
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Autumn is here! It’s time for spiced tea and eating outside and Halloween and not drowning in our own sweat! It’s also full of phrases and lines and descriptions yet to be written! Come join us in writing about new seasons, fresh air, exploring new places, or eating all the leftover candy. This gentle, restorative workshop will use writing exercises and prompts to help you re-center and think about what you want to work on in your writing. All genres are welcome—from non-fiction, to poetry, to speculative fiction, to memoir—or explore a different genre in each prompt! Over the course of this three-hour workshop, we’ll talk about where our writing is and where we want it to go, what our writing dreams are, and what it means to practice writing. We’ll write using several different prompts to get reaccustomed to writing without self-censoring, to encourage writing with intent, and to have fun writing playfully. We’ll share our in-workshop writing and talk about presenting new work with confidence. Writers can be of any experience level; feel free to bring works already in progress or simply come ready to renew your love of writing in a supportive, affirmative environment where all creativity is valued and celebrated.
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Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

Writing & Art: Inspiration to Transformation

INSTRUCTOR: Courtney O’Banion Smith
TIME: Saturday, September 30, 1:00–4:00 p.m. 
PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, September 25. After Monday, September 25: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map) 
LEVEL: All levels
CAP: 15

A picture can inspire so many more than just the proverbial thousand words, but how do you make those words more than just a description? Good writing about art is a conversation between the work of art, the writer, and the reader. And like any meaningful conversation, art-inspired writing requires attention, appreciation, intention, and invention. Join Pushcart Prize-nominated and prize-winning poet Courtney O’Banion Smith as she leads an exploration of how art can lead to prose and poetry that ranges from the personal to the fictional and from the realistic to the fantastic. After discussing example texts to learn the various forms that art-inspired writing can take, participants will tour Sabine Street Studios to find art that speaks to them individually. A generative workshop will follow, and those who wish may share their writing.
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Photo by Blake Cheek on Unsplash

View all our upcoming workshops.

​Our Next Event

September Reading and Open Mic!

Come hear and be heard! Bring bug spray!
TIME: Friday, September 29, 7–9:30 p.m. CST
LOCATION: Antidote Coffee, 729 Studewood St, Houston, TX 77007 (map)
FEATURING: Kristina Koutsoudas
COST: Free for members. $5.00 for nonmembers. Become a member here.
REGISTRATION: To become a reader sign up here. Sign-ups are open to all and on a first come, first served basis. Please note that you must arrive before 7:00 p.m. to get a snack and get situated, thanks!

Buying a ticket does not sign you up to read. Signing up to read does not buy you a ticket. You must buy a ticket AND sign up to read.

You must sign up here to read!

Come out and listen to our featured readers and read yourself! Please note that you will need to arrive before 7:00 p.m. to get a seat.
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Accessibility: Street parking will be necessary. Fully accessible coffee shop.
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Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash


What people are saying about our workshops:

"I hadn’t written poetry in more than 6 months. Not because I didn’t have anything to say—but rather, the opposite: I have too much to say, and not enough time to say it. That’s the beauty of short-form poetry—and I can think of no one better than Dr. Kendra Leonard to be your guide into this world.

If you’re like me—an unpracticed, imperfect poet who doesn’t know anything about the mechanics of sonnets or limericks—it can feel super intimidating to step into a poetry workshop. But Dr. Leonard made me feel anything but intimidated. She is kind, encouraging, and takes a gentle, question-led (rather than feedback-led) approach to workshopping poetry.
What’s truly amazing is that she’s helped me turn short-form poetry into a habit. I’ve written a poem every day since taking her workshop. Often, I don’t have a big block of time to sit down and journal out all my thoughts and feelings. Dr. Leonard’s workshop showed me that I can be just as expressive through short-form poetry, and in a fraction of the time.

I’m really excited to take her workshop on ekphrastic writing."

—Ynes Freeman, on Kendra Preston Leonard's Writing Short: Poetry in the Palm of Your Hand
Please Donate Now!
All donations made to Writespace are tax-deductible.


Writespace is a Houston grassroots literary arts nonprofit whose mission is to embrace and 
celebrate our city’s diversity by providing the type of high-quality training available through Master of Fine Arts creative writing programs at a fraction of the cost to writers of all genres, with a focus on providing programming for underserved communities and scholarships for low-income writers.

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Join our mailing list!

Become a member!
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​Writespace
1907 Sabine Street, Ste 125
Houston, TX 77007

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  • About
    • Our Organization
    • Member Success Stories
    • People >
      • Staff
      • Board of Directors
      • Faculty >
        • Nick Almeida
        • Tanya Aydelott
        • Nyri Bakkalian
        • Andreana Binder
        • Mackenzie Bitz
        • Joyce Boatright
        • Julia Brown
        • Kartika Budhwar
        • Debbie Burns
        • Joe Burns
        • Sean Morrisey Carroll
        • Cynthia Childress
        • Cassandra Rose Clarke
        • Jessica Cole
        • Mark Dostert
        • Emily Foxhall
        • Ynes Freeman
        • Rosa Boshier González
        • Mark Haber
        • Matthew Hefti
        • Sarah Gajkowski-Hill
        • Adam Holt
        • Angélique Jamail
        • Justin Jannise
        • Marlena Johns
        • Amal Kassir
        • Karleen Koen
        • Mike Kowis, Esq.
        • Kendra Preston Leonard
        • Phuc Luu
        • Lorenzo Martinez
        • Thomas H McNeely
        • Jasminne Mendez
        • Ülrika Moats
        • Jody T. Morse
        • Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
        • Kinza Muzahir
        • Patricia Flaherty Pagan
        • Kate Pentecost
        • Kathryn Peterson
        • Joy Preble
        • Paige Quiñones
        • Icess Fernandez Rojas
        • ire'ne lara silva
        • Tamara Nicholl-Smith
        • Courtney O'Banion Smith
        • Rebecca Spears
        • Patrick Stockwell
        • Victoria Strange
        • Marian Szczepanski
        • Catherine Vance
        • Juan Fernando Villagómez
        • Holly Walrath
        • Charlotte Wyatt
        • D.L. Young
        • Theodora Ziolkowski
    • Blog >
      • Meet Our Members
      • Interviews with Authors
  • Workshops
    • Creative Writing
    • Pace Yourself
    • Write Practice Subscriptions
    • Workshop Policies
    • Scholarships
    • Online Class Tech Support
  • Mentoring & Editing
    • About Mentoring & Editing
    • Artist Residency
  • Events
    • Meetups & Member Events
    • Writers' Family Reunion
    • Readings & Open Mics
  • Writefest
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Memberships >
      • Gift Membership Form
    • Employment
    • Join Email List
  • Contact