Dana De Greff
Dana De Greff holds a Masters in Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Miami. She has taught Creative Writing classes at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Miami, Miami Arts Charter, Books & Books, The Loft Literary Center, The Writing Barn, and Austin Bat Cave.
She is the author of Alterations (winner of the 2018 Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series published by Seven Kitchens Press), recipient of the 2018 Lillian E. Smith Writer-in-Service Award, and the 2017-2018 Literary Artist-in-Residence at the Deering Estate. She has been accepted or awarded scholarships from Tent: Creative Writing, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, The Key West Literary Seminar, the Lemon Tree House Residency in Tuscany, and Hedgebrook.
Her work appears in Cosmonauts Avenue, Jabberwock Review, PANK, Origins Journal, Philadelphia Stories, and Gulf Stream Magazine, among others. Most recently, she’s the recipient of a 2021 Pushcart Prize Nomination for her story “Storms,” published in the Winter 2020 Issue of Jabberwock Review and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Key West Literary Seminar's Marianne Russo Award for her novel-in-progress, EVERYDAY MYSTICISM. She is represented by Writers House. Visit her online at www.danadegreff.com
EXCERPT: From "The Seventh Chakra"
At first glance, Yessi thought the boy was a pile of laundry, somebody’s whites amassed and thrown out the window, the result of a lover’s quarrel. Mornings in the apartment were a blur—she made coffee before anything else—but still, she knew there was something there on the other side of the sliding glass doors. While the coffee brewed, she went to the bathroom and put her contacts in, washed her face, twisted her long hair into a bun. When she returned to the kitchen, she glanced outside again and that’s when she really saw it, or rather, him. Yessi knew how the body moved and how the body broke, that no tendons could stretch so far, that limbs were not meant to twist like dough.
For the past seven months, she’d been teaching yoga every day at a studio on Key Biscayne, traveling to clients’ houses for private classes, leading free workshops in parks, and, one time, regrettably, in a clothing store in Dadeland Mall. She told herself it was temporary, that soon she’d get the experience and reputation to charge more and work less. She just needed to be patient and stay connected. This is also what she told her boyfriend, Ricardo, a lawyer from Buenos Aires. They’d dated for five years now—one in Austin and four in Miami—and lived in ONE TRUE PLACE, a high-rise apartment near Key Biscayne Nature Preserve. Floor to ceiling windows, white leather couches, a gigantic island kitchen and The American Dream, all paid for by Ricardo. Yessi contributed nothing, and while he said it didn’t bother him, it bothered her immensely.
Read the full story here.
Recommended Books for Aspiring Writers
Testimonials
"Dana De Greff’s writing prompts were productive and inspired me to start writing pages from day one. Her workshops are incredibly nurturing, too. She offers a space where writers can feel comfortable sharing their work and her feedback is always constructive and helpful. I would take more classes with her in a heartbeat!"
—Patricia Garcia
"Dana is knowledgeable, perceptive, and, as a writer, brings her experience to the group. She is well informed and often suggests novels that we should be aware of as inputs to our writing. All of us in the current workshop we are attending would be happy to continue to work with her. That’s the best compliment."
—Charles Wendel
"Dana's approach to teaching is fun and light-hearted and allows for creativity and exploration. If you've been working on an idea or are stuck in your writing process, I highly recommend you take one of her classes or use her coaching services."
—Jeanette Rodriguez
She is the author of Alterations (winner of the 2018 Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series published by Seven Kitchens Press), recipient of the 2018 Lillian E. Smith Writer-in-Service Award, and the 2017-2018 Literary Artist-in-Residence at the Deering Estate. She has been accepted or awarded scholarships from Tent: Creative Writing, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, The Key West Literary Seminar, the Lemon Tree House Residency in Tuscany, and Hedgebrook.
Her work appears in Cosmonauts Avenue, Jabberwock Review, PANK, Origins Journal, Philadelphia Stories, and Gulf Stream Magazine, among others. Most recently, she’s the recipient of a 2021 Pushcart Prize Nomination for her story “Storms,” published in the Winter 2020 Issue of Jabberwock Review and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Key West Literary Seminar's Marianne Russo Award for her novel-in-progress, EVERYDAY MYSTICISM. She is represented by Writers House. Visit her online at www.danadegreff.com
EXCERPT: From "The Seventh Chakra"
At first glance, Yessi thought the boy was a pile of laundry, somebody’s whites amassed and thrown out the window, the result of a lover’s quarrel. Mornings in the apartment were a blur—she made coffee before anything else—but still, she knew there was something there on the other side of the sliding glass doors. While the coffee brewed, she went to the bathroom and put her contacts in, washed her face, twisted her long hair into a bun. When she returned to the kitchen, she glanced outside again and that’s when she really saw it, or rather, him. Yessi knew how the body moved and how the body broke, that no tendons could stretch so far, that limbs were not meant to twist like dough.
For the past seven months, she’d been teaching yoga every day at a studio on Key Biscayne, traveling to clients’ houses for private classes, leading free workshops in parks, and, one time, regrettably, in a clothing store in Dadeland Mall. She told herself it was temporary, that soon she’d get the experience and reputation to charge more and work less. She just needed to be patient and stay connected. This is also what she told her boyfriend, Ricardo, a lawyer from Buenos Aires. They’d dated for five years now—one in Austin and four in Miami—and lived in ONE TRUE PLACE, a high-rise apartment near Key Biscayne Nature Preserve. Floor to ceiling windows, white leather couches, a gigantic island kitchen and The American Dream, all paid for by Ricardo. Yessi contributed nothing, and while he said it didn’t bother him, it bothered her immensely.
Read the full story here.
Recommended Books for Aspiring Writers
- Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
- Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salesses
- The Book of Delights, Ross Gay
Testimonials
"Dana De Greff’s writing prompts were productive and inspired me to start writing pages from day one. Her workshops are incredibly nurturing, too. She offers a space where writers can feel comfortable sharing their work and her feedback is always constructive and helpful. I would take more classes with her in a heartbeat!"
—Patricia Garcia
"Dana is knowledgeable, perceptive, and, as a writer, brings her experience to the group. She is well informed and often suggests novels that we should be aware of as inputs to our writing. All of us in the current workshop we are attending would be happy to continue to work with her. That’s the best compliment."
—Charles Wendel
"Dana's approach to teaching is fun and light-hearted and allows for creativity and exploration. If you've been working on an idea or are stuck in your writing process, I highly recommend you take one of her classes or use her coaching services."
—Jeanette Rodriguez