Creative Writing

June Workshops & Events

Renew Your Love for Writing: All-Genre Generative

INSTRUCTOR: Kendra Preston Leonard
TIME: Saturday, June 5th, 1-4 PM CST
PRICE: Early-Bird until Monday, May 31st: $45 for members, $60 for non-members. After Monday, May 31st: $55 for members, $70 for non-members. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

Wondering what to write right now and how? Finding it hard to process the pandemic and all of the surrounding turmoil? This gentle, restorative workshop will use writing exercises and prompts to help you re-center and enjoy writing again during and after a very difficult time. 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 the pandemic and its effect on us as writers, our fears and hopes, and what it means to practice writing. We’ll use several ideas for writing exercises from Natalie Goldberg’s classic Writing Down the Bones 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.

Journaling through Difficult Times

INSTRUCTOR: Joyce Boatright
TIME: Saturday, June 12th, 1:00 - 4:00 PM CST
PRICE: Early-Bird until Monday, June 7th: $45 for members, $60 for non-members. After Monday, June 7th: $55 for members, $70 for non-members. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

We have become weary of this global pandemic, climate change, economic insecurity, isolation and loneliness, and social injustice. Life easily spins out of control these days. We become panicked and overwhelmed with anxiety, which robs us of our creativity and productivity.

Keeping a journal is a powerful strategy for getting back on track and sustaining our mental prowess. In addition, our journals become gold mines for current and future memoirs and personal essays.

This workshop will examine proven ways for journaling ourselves out of the chaos and reclaiming our joie de vivre. Participants will engage in morning pages, reflective writing, and self-discovery.

Writing Short: Micro Essay

INSTRUCTOR: Justin Jannise
TIME: June 19th, 1:00 - 4:00 PM CST
PRICE: Early-Bird until Monday, June 14th: $45 for members, $60 for non-members. After Monday, June 14th: $55 for members, $70 for non-members. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

Micro-essays have it all. Combining the narrative pleasures of fiction, the lyric inventions of poetry, and the resonant truths of non-fiction, the micro-essay is a fusion of some of today’s most popular literary techniques. Generally clocking in at less than 500 words, the micro-essay compresses a true-life story into a dazzling work of art. In this three-hour, generative workshop, the instructor will introduce examples of this explosive new genre and prompt students to draft their own micro-essays in class. Time will be set aside to discuss revision techniques and opportunities for publication.

Mags to Riches

INSTRUCTOR: Jody T. Morse
TIME: Saturday, June 26th, 1:00 - 4:00 PM CST
PRICE: Early-Bird until Monday, June 21st: $45 for members, $60 for non-members. After Monday, June 21st: $55 for members, $70 for non-members. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

They say that everyone has a story in them—so why not magazine articles? Join a seasoned freelance writer for this informative, generative session focused on all things magazine. From penning professional pitches to exploring article ideas to working with editors and style guides, your instructor will offer tons of tips and tricks to help you on your way to becoming a successful magazine writer. No experience is necessary and all you need to bring is yourself—although you might find a notebook or laptop helpful.

July Workshops & Events

Poetry 2: Journey of Poetry

INSTRUCTOR: Justin Jannise
TIME: Wednesdays, July 7, July 14, July 21, July 28, August 4, August 11, 6:00–9:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Friday, July 2: $210 for members, $240 for nonmembers. After Friday, July 2: $240 for members, $270 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

Poems have the unique power to make sounds, images, and experiences resonate. Whether by drawing on memories or imagining future worlds, the best poetry reverberates with originality and inspires us to find the poems we all have within us.

This course is designed to further your poetic journey through close readings of poems, generative writing assignments, and lively discussion. We’ll talk image and idea, line and sentence, sense and nonsense. We will conclude by discussing revision strategies and opportunities for publication. No prior experience writing poetry is required, although those who've already completed Poetry 1: Journey of Poetry, or its equivalent, are particularly welcome.

Writing as Catharsis

INSTRUCTOR: Elisabeth Commanday Swim
TIME: Saturday, July 10, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Monday, July 5: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. After Monday, July 5: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here.
Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15

Do you promise yourself to write and then find yourself cleaning out your inbox or scrubbing floor baseboards instead? Is it difficult for you to shift gears after reading the news? Do you have a lot of feelings related to the way life changed in order to suppress the virus COVID-19? Has your writing taken the back burner? Does it scare you to imagine feeling the emotions welling up under the surface? If you want to feel equipped to write about difficult emotions even with a busy life, Writing as Catharsis is for you. This one-day workshop is for poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, and people who feel pulled toward writing but don’t know how to start. By the end of our time together, you will know how to tap into emotions waiting to be processed from the recent or distant past. These tools include ways to encourage yourself to write even in moments of resistant procrastination. Please note: although therapeutic in nature, this class is NOT a mental health service, nor does it substitute for support from a licensed professional.

Mags II Riches: The Art of the Article

INSTRUCTOR: Jody T. Morse
TIME: Sunday, July 11, 3:00–6:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Tuesday, July 6: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. After Tuesday, July 6: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15

In this follow-up course to 'Mags to Riches: Writing for Magazines 101', instructor Jody T. Morse will lead participants through a brief recap of the basic how-tos of launching a career in magazine writing and then dive into the actual skill and craft of penning brilliant nonfiction articles. In this generative session, attendees will cultivate three leads (or “nutgrafs,” to use publishing slang) that can be turned into pitches or fleshed out into full-length articles. As well, students will learn the art of crafting catchy titles and examine some of the instructor’s favorite articles of all time, gleaning their best attributes. The atmosphere will be a balance of fun and professionalism, friendliness and productivity.

Creating the Poetry Chapbook

INSTRUCTOR: Kendra Preston Leonard
TIME: Mondays, July 12, July 19, July 26, August 2, August 9, August 16, 6:00–8:30 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Wednesday, June 30: $210 for members, $240 for nonmembers. After Wednesday, June 30: $240 for members, $270 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
CAP: 15

From first poem to final publication, this workshop takes you through the ins and outs of writing, organizing, and sharing poetry in the chapbook format. Chapbooks, which have their origins in early modern Europe, are small collections of poems or prose poems of no more than forty pages. Often centered on a theme, chapbooks are an excellent way of sharing and promoting your poetry. Over the course of this workshop, we will discuss selecting a theme, explore resources for writing, write poems and discuss them together, talk about ways of organizing the poems in the chapbook, and consider different methods of publishing. Some previous experience writing poetry will be helpful, but not required. We’ll be working with Matthew Salesses’s book Craft in the Real World to help guide us in our workshop; I’ll provide scans of the material we’ll use the most, but having a copy on hand isn’t a bad idea.

How to Build an Author Platform

INSTRUCTOR: Joy Preble
TIME: Sunday, July 18, 3:00–6:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Tuesday, July 13: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. After Tuesday, July 13: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here.
Scholarships available here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15

Whether you are a multi-published author, a debut novice, or working to break into the business, you need to develop an author platform. But what does that mean? In this workshop, you'll learn that your platform is more complex than just self-promotion, it is a multistep process to build a brand, become known, and achieve success not only for your books, but also for yourself as an author. Once we have studied and discussed that process, each participant will be challenged to develop a plan of action to expand and maintain their visibility and connectedness as a writer and part of the arts community.

Be The Change: Crafting Your Social Justice Essay

INSTRUCTOR: Catherine Vance
TIME: Tuesdays, July 20 and 27, 6:00–9:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Thursday, July 15: $85 for members, $100 for nonmembers. After Thursday, July 15: $100 for members, $115 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Scholarships available here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15

Do you have an experience that changed how you view the world? Maybe you experienced an injustice, like being the victim of racial profiling? Maybe you did something awful that you now regret, like bullying a transgender kid in high school. Maybe it was transformational, like a year in the Peace Corps. You want to write about that experience to help others see the world through your lens, but you don’t know how to begin. This class can help.

Social justice writing is nonfiction, but to do it well, you must think like a fiction writer. There are characters to portray, plot and drama to create, and point of view to consider. There is emotion in social justice writing, but there is also logic and the presentation of concrete information. How do you mesh feelings with the facts?

In the first three-hour session, we will analyze the craft of professional social justice storytellers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) and Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) to see how they affect the way readers think about their topics. We will also go through some exercises designed to help you focus your own story on the three key pieces of crafting a social justice memoir: Anecdote (the little story), Introspection (how it affected you), and Connection (creating meaning for the reader).

In the second three-hour session participants will workshop each other’s pieces. You should walk away ready to polish your memoir or essay to completion and inspired by your classmates’ stories and passion for changing the world.

Writing Violence

INSTRUCTOR: Matthew Hefti
TIME: Saturday and Sunday, July 24 and 25, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Monday, July 19: $85 for members, $100 for nonmembers. After Monday, July 19: $100 for members, $115 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Scholarships available here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15
Violence is a part of many stories and comes in many forms. It serves a variety of purposes in a text, from intentionally disturbing the reader to being a vital part of the entertainment. While every genre comes with its own expectations, writing about violence requires balancing on a tightrope. When is an author graphic enough to prove their point, and when has the author gone too far?

This cross-genre workshop will study how violence is portrayed in writing and its effects on readers. Taking place over the course of a weekend in two 3-hour sessions, attendees will walk away with a better understanding of how to ensure the violence in their story has the effect intended.

Participants should be aware that graphic language, disturbing imagery, and traumatic events will be discussed in this workshop.

How Characters Drive Story

INSTRUCTOR: Angélique Jamail
TIME: Saturday, July 31st, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST
PRICE: Early bird until Monday, July 26: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. After Monday, July 26: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Scholarships available here.
LOCATION: Online via Zoom
LEVEL: All Levels
CAP: 15

Have you ever written a story that didn’t quite connect with its readers? Or have you ever finally found your story’s resonance only after three or four drafts? One good way to captivate your readers from the outset is to begin with compelling characters. In this generative workshop, we’ll use tools from popular culture, narrative craft, and literary analysis to kickstart (or revamp!) your story with characters that seem so real they leap off the page. Come see why character drives plot, no matter the genre, far more than the other way around. Be sure to bring your preferred writing utensils (journal and pen, laptop, legal pad and box of sharpened pencils, etc.), a description of your favorite character from a book or movie, and an eagerness to look at character from a variety of angles. You can expect instruction, discussion, writing time, and the opportunity to share (if you wish) what you create in this class.