It’s been called the “holy grail” of personal essay publications: the Modern Love column in the New York Times. Your best story. 1500 words. A potentially career-changing publication. We’ll talk about what it takes and how to get noticed.

Join best-selling author and craft maven Steve Almond in this fast-paced class that focuses on how to step back from your sentences so that you can find your story. That only happens when you start thinking about the larger issues of Character, Plot, and Chronology. Discovering your character’s desires, and their inhibitions, is a direct link to plot. Finding the chain of consequence that drives the plot is the key to figuring out how to tell the story. Too often, classes focus on just one aspect of craft, without realizing that these elements are intimately linked, and can only be solved by thinking about them in relation to one another. Consider this the ultimate cheat code to story.

I love great, sprawling New Yorker stuff and literary magnum opuses, but often I crave something shorter, something that hits my heart but doesn’t take itself too preciously, something fun. I seek similar when writing: to enter a state of childlike wonder and discovery, to resist accepted rules, to make mistakes, to say what I’ve never said before or even known I needed to say, to play. In this five week generative class we’ll make space for play in our writing process, and we’ll examine short-ish creative nonfiction that embraces the unconventional. Our focus will be on trying new styles and techniques, and writing with excitement, verve, and a sense of adventure.

The class is intended for writers of any genre new to reading their work aloud who hope to improve their style and presentation on stage, or anyone inexperienced and curious about how to give a good reading. We’ll share tips and tricks on how to best present your work to the public, drawn from our time as readers and as hosts of reading series. We’ll end with an American Idol style practicum where you will take the stage and read to the room, after which you’ll receive warm, helpful, real-time constructive feedback.

Recently, in a workshop of his own, author Peter Orner said, "We should all read more paragraphs out loud to each other." That -- combined with anecdotes from other established writers whose own personal writing groups involve reading pages as the ink dries -- is the inspiration behind this casual, intimate non-class class. Perhaps you're not up for lengthy comprehensive feedback on your work-in-progress, but you would like a quick temperature check from others who are also in the deep, generative stage. Students will gather weekly to read out loud short excerpts from their WIP to glean spontaneous and encouraging gut reactions, and to funnel that fresh energy back into their work. No weekly prep is required, only your openness and attention.

In this short course and workshop, students will explore new ways to write about the illness, disability, or the body through experimental poetry and prose, moving beyond or subverting a medical perspective. Students will be given a variety of generative prompts, encouraging them to consider how a social, political, emotional, or personal lens interacts with narratives about the body. We’ll read work by writers doing innovative work around the body, illness, and disability, including Katie Farris, Elaine Scarry, Torrin A. Greathouse, Melissa Febos, Ilya Kaminsky, and Nicole Sealey, studying the craft behind them. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop at least one piece in a supportive environment.

A generative workshop focusing on following intuition and playfulness to create work that surprises even the writer. In this class we will discuss the idea of writing from the uncomfortable place of “not-knowing.” We will discuss the work of Joy Williams, Kathryn Scanlan, Rachel B. Glaser, and David Lynch. My hope is that we will begin to write during the class, allowing ourselves to feel free to experiment. Students should leave with the belief that the surreal, the strange, can inform a piece of realistic fiction, deepening and complicating the world they are trying to create.

Techniques of Revision is a five-week workshop and course that digs deep on the actual techniques and practice of revision. We’ll do this in three ways: through a skillshare among students, through looking at other students’ work with an eye toward revision, and through actually taking time together to revise our own work and talk about the experience. Throughout this, we’ll try to focus less on general philosophies of revision or at lists of “rules of good writing,” but as far as is possible on revision as a practice. If this were a painting class, it would be a class on brush technique.

You've written your book (or proposal). You've revised your book (or proposal). You've revised it again. You've revised it AGAIN. Now you're ready to take the next step towards getting it off your hard drive and into published form. Or maybe you haven't written the whole thing yet, but you are curious about what those next steps towards publication will be.

Study the greats, become the GREATEST. For 5 weeks, Screenplays by Badass Women offers a supportive, uproariously fun, and explorative kaleidoscope of screenwriting study AND practice. We’ll deep-dive several of the most groundbreaking screenplays by women, engage in conversation about what exactly these cinematic worlds offer that’s brilliantly off-kilter and essential, as well as WRITE diligently into our own screenplays. All levels welcome—from beginner to experienced screenwriter.

Looking to add some levity to your short fiction? Love Reductress or Shouts and Murmurs and want to try writing a humor piece? Trying to include a funny moment in a complex story? In this short course and workshop, students will explore how comedy can bring new dimensions to their writing. We’ll read pieces by prominent humor writers including George Saunders, Alissa Nutting, Anthony Vaesna So, Melissa Broder, Paul Beatty, and more, studying how the authors use comedy to enrich their storytelling. The class is open to writers of any experience level with an interest in humor writing or who want to bring more joy and silliness into their work. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop one piece in a supportive environment.

Whether you have been able to "consciously uncouple" or are on opposite sides of a courtroom, there is always a story to tell. The ending of a romantic relationship makes a mountain between the "before" and "after", and we will explore each space in this generative workshop.

Within a safe and supportive environment, we will "unpack" the nuances and stigmas of breaking up through fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. We will use the time to both identify your narrative and refine your unique perspective.

This class is for those in the thick of it, on the other side, or just wondering who will get the new salad tongs when you separate. Through humor, sadness, resilience, and strength, we will turn our rage, tears, relief, a

The very best stories are often highly constructed, although they may appear perfectly natural. We will pick them apart, learn by dissecting literature with an eye for how a story is built and the choices the author made to create their work. This class will focus on close reading of passages from short stories and novels, including Jhumpa Lahiri, Claire Keegan, Ocean Vuong, Truman Capote, and many more. We will read these passages closely and examine them on the sentence level. What is working here and why? We will focus on the prose: the paragraph, the sentence, the word, the letter, and even the phoneme. We will talk about the speeds and flows of narrative time (scene, summary, gap), as well as the texture of language, voice, rhythm, and musicality, among other things. Along the way, I will also provide writing prompts to help you put into practice some of the craft tips and tricks we will be talking about in this class. This class is designed as a comprehensive deep dive to equip students with all the skills they need to approach future texts not only as readers but as writers.

This six-week generative fiction class is intended for those new to fiction or anyone who needs an infusion of energy in their current practice. Over the six weeks, you’ll gain practice in accessing the generative impulse as well as concrete strategies for spotting opportunities in your earliest drafts. I’ll guide you through thoughtfully designed (and fun!) exercises developed to get the ideas you’ve been holding onto out of your head and onto the page — as well as chip away at the blocks that often prevent us from sitting down to write.

Has your writing hit a plateau? Are you stuck in the murky middle? Or maybe you are sitting on perfectly competent stories that still feel like they're missing something? You’re getting complacent, or you know in your gut you've been holding back? Remove the safety net in this high level course for the dedicated fiction writer. This month-long workshop will explore strategies to increase the risk in our writing: destabilizing, unsettling, and pushing our work closer to the line in an effort to excavate its most honest, urgent, and vital pulse. This intimate, supportive live class on zoom will require active participation, with an accompanying asynchronous slack for prompts, craft materials and additional community discussion. Although there will be generative opportunities, the focus of this workshop is revision with an eye toward publication.

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” —Virginia Woolf

How do we render ourselves in our own work? Why should we? In this class, we will consider the first-person voice in nonfiction writing. Our remit is not the so-called "personal essay," which leads with "I," but rather essays that are subversively personal, where an author is alive on the page, in the midst of wide-ranging material. A first-person voice can both free and protect a nonfiction writer; it can enhance a political argument; it can channel the magic of fiction, of a flawed, human narrator. Moreover, it can ask a radical self-knowledge of the writer, to evoke that self on the page. To hone our own abilities and discernment in the deployment of this voice, we will read and study writers such as Eula Biss, Jenny Zhang, Zadie Smith, and Wesley Morris.

If you’ve been walking around with a story or book idea in your head but don’t know where to start, this class is for you! Getting started on a project is often the scariest part and this four-week class is designed to get you over that fear and start writing. Weekly writing exercises, craft lectures, and readings will help you begin to develop your characters and get words down on the page. We’ll also talk about writing habits and how to overcome writer’s block. At the end of the week, you’ll have a 30-minute one-on-one phone call with me to discuss a piece of your choosing or to talk about your writing in general.

Explore two magical films, “Barbie” and “The NeverEnding Story”—one a modern classic, one a nostalgia-drunk cult classic, but both brilliant examples of “alternative storytelling.” Barbieland and Fantasia are geographical cousins of struggle, self-discovery, and utter revolution. In this one-day workshop, we’ll explore how these two groundbreaking and beloved films exalt boundless imagination (offering sheer delight!), and exemplify the power of embodiment in screenwriting (offering profound humanist lessons). Absolutely no screenwriting experience necessary! Just bring your cinephile joy and curiosity.

Do you have an idea for a memoir, gift book, or essay collection, but you've been fearing the daunting prospect of putting together a book proposal? In this one-day seminar, writers will throw their worry to the wind, learn the nuts and bolts of a professional proposal, and finally defeat the blank page. In this viral age, you never know when a shorter piece can take off – and all of a sudden opportunities are coming your way that you need to act on! We’ll cover the sections of a standard book proposal, talk about creating/maintaining a platform, brainstorm your existing affiliations, find comparable titles to compare them to your own work, and create and refine the shorter pieces you will need for any proposal, such as author bios and an awareness of how to situate your writing and voice in the larger marketplace.

Join writer Tommy Dean for a two-hour generative writing session focused on creating one full flash draft from opening to ending to everything in-between. We’ll look at model texts and use prompts for each element of a successful flash including openings, escalation, backstory, metaphor, middles, endings, and titles. Instead of 5-6 separate starts, we’ll concentrate on crafting one full story with inspiring prompts for each craft element. Come create a complete and urgent story with me and your fellow writers!

A generative writing class for women (or anyone who identifies as female / nonbinary / gender-nonconforming) who feel like they miiiiiight be losing it. Instead of running away from home... try this class first? Whether you're overwhelmed or stretched thin; wound up or worn out; blocked, stuck, or just feel like making some time to write each week, this class is a way to reconnect with your creative core. You can write in any genre you like -- nonfiction, fiction, poetry, stream-of-consciousness, journaling, fragments, rants, letters, lists -- whatever feels right each day. This class is about process, creativity, and making some space for your own voice. It's just an hour, and there's no homework. Sneak it in on your lunch break (or while the kids are watching a movie; they'll live). It'll be encouraging, regenerative, nourishing, and fun.

Have you been moved by a person’s life story, their excellence, their complications, their fullness to the point where you can’t stop thinking about them? Have you ever said, “huh, wonder what happened to that person?” and gone down a rabbit hole of internet search? Have you wondered how you can portray a really famous person in a new light? Or, have you never thought much about profile writing but you’re curious – and want to dive into a subject’s story?

Then, you’re in the right space! In this 6-week workshop, perfect for writers at all stages of their journalism careers, we will find a subject, interview the subject (and the people around them), find conflict in the story, and write a dynamic story. At the end of week six, every student will have a fully finished profile story – and the skillset to pitch it to a magazine or a website.

Are you a writer developing a poetry or prose manuscript, and looking for a close reader and individualized support? Look no further! This intensive 4-session program is designed for poets and prose writers who are in the developmental or editorial stages of a project. Here, participants will have the opportunity for 2 personalized consultations with the instructor to discuss goals, structure, revision, and ordering strategies, either for a full manuscript, poetry collection, or a chapbook they’re working toward.

Writing a novel is hard, but it doesn’t have to be lonely! This competitive, all-genre 12-month manuscript intensive is designed for writers who have a book begging to be written, who are interested in understanding and mastering the art form from the ground up. From Dreamseed to Final Draft is a multi-dimensional year-long artist space that exists in three phases, each suited to a part of the manuscript life cycle: drafting, revision, and publishing. Unlike other novel generators which focus solely on manuscript production, this course is built to be an immersive creative experience, weaving together literature study, Tarot, astrology, writing philosophy, and literary marketplace 101 to open up the art of novel craft in a wholly new way and demystify the process of getting the finished work out into the world. Drawing on over a decade of experience in writing, editing and teaching, Mila Jaroniec has designed this first-of-its-kind class specifically for Writing Co-Lab. If you missed out on Mila’s classes at Catapult, or you're looking for something totally different than what's out there, this is the one to take!

Writing Cultural Criticism is a five-week course that will cover the fundamentals of cultural criticism from review writing to feature writing (and how to craft a pitch too). During this course, we will read critics from wide backgrounds (covering a variety of topics) and apply what we’ve learned to our own writing and workshop feedback.

Run to the airport with all the fervor of a feminist in sensible shoes! This course is equal parts craft and source text study (unbraiding commercial hit scenes, then “rewriting them” per our experience as actual human women!). We’ll be scrutinizing a delightfully problematic genre, allowing for its dependable joys, but finding all-new writerly freedom in subverting its tropes and reimaging its comedy front to back—with laughs based in truth and fearless play. Come with original script ideas, or none at all.

Historical fiction describes—or can describe—a huge range of books, from Regency romances to wartime thrillers to literary novels exploring the cultural upheavals that followed World War II. So what, beyond research, brings these varied forms of writing together? And what craft tools can historically-oriented fiction writers of all stripes learn from each other? In this one-time seminar, we will learn tools and techniques to build history into fiction without writing like a textbook.

Grief is a door we are pushed through into a new world, a world we must live in. We are never the same. How do we write from these new selves? How can we lean into our writing practice to not only survive the storms of grief, but also the storms that are unleashed in those who we grieve alongside? In this workshop, we will find inspiration from writers who have broken through the boundary of wordlessness.

In this class, writers will come in with nothing, and leave with five short essays ready to show the world. The discipline of writing every week will strengthen your writerly muscles, while the energy in the class will be supportive and enthusiastic. You can and will write better, sharper essays than you did before, and while that work won’t always be easy, it will be rewarding. You don’t want to waste your reader’s time, and this class won’t waste yours!

In this 3-week class, we'll dive into memoir writing with a fun and accessible approach: capturing one immersive memory in a flash memoir. By the end of three weeks, you'll go from the blank page to three completed flash memoir drafts! Every week, we'll each draft a flash memoir piece, and focus on specific craft elements of both successful memoir and flash writing. In analyzing, drafting, and revising flash memoirs, we'll dig into the heart of the story and bring out the most evocative details. Flash memoirs can stand on their own, or they help us bring depth and immediacy to our longer memoirs as well, and we'll discuss moving from a short piece into a longer project. Students will have the opportunity to workshop at least one of their flash pieces with our whole class offering encouraging and constructive feedback.