a writer-owned experimental cooperative school

Writing Co-Lab, founded in 2023 by Brian Gresko, Sara Lippmann, and Amy Shearn, is a teaching cooperative owned and operated by artists passionate about craft, community, creativity, and the joyous power of the written word. Co-Lab, short for cooperative laboratory, indicates our excitement and commitment to working together and with our students in providing educational experiences not seen within the traditional academic or continuing-ed landscape. Our teachers bring their unique experiences and voices to their classes, which cover a variety of topics, from preparing work for publication, to deepening discipline, trying new styles and techniques, and cultivating fun in the writing process. Taking time to develop your art is a deeply rewarding experience, and it is our privilege to help you on that journey, whether you are looking for renewed vigor on the way, or are about to take your first steps.

Browse our current class offerings.

Keep up with Writing Co-Lab by signing up for our newsletter.

Why Choose Us?

  • The majority of your tuition goes to the writer in the classroom with you, we keep our administrative costs as low as possible.

  • We offer a variety of classes, with coaching and consultation packages to come soon.

  • Our teachers are a diverse group of working writers with a variety of experiences.

  • Our classes are online and scheduled at a variety of times, so everyone will find something that suits their schedule.

Co-Lab Instructors

current and past

Co-Lab Directors

Brian Gresko (he/they) is a writer based in Brooklyn, where they co-run Pete’s Reading Series, the borough's longest running literary venue. Their work has appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, Slate, The Atlantic, Longreads, The Rumpus, and many other publications. Also a stay-at-home parent, they edited the anthology When I First Held You: 22 Critically Acclaimed Writers Talk about the Triumphs, Challenges, and Transformative Experience of Fatherhood. They received their MFA in fiction from The New School, and was the first in their family to attend college, at Oberlin.

Sara Lippmann (she/her) is the author of the novel Lech and the story collections Doll Palace and Jerks. Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. With Seth Rogoff, she is co-editor of the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible forthcoming from SUNY Press. She received a BA from Brown and an MFA from the New School, and has over 20 years of teaching creative writing to students of all ages, including with Girls Write Now, 92NY, Rutgers, and St. Joseph’s University. Raised outside of Philadelphia, she lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Amy Shearn (she/her) is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, plus the forthcoming novels Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024) and Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025). She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Amy's essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, Coastal Living, Poets & Writers, and Literary Hub. She has short fiction and poetry publications forthcoming in No Tokens and Pigeon Pages. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn.

Co-Lab Logo

Our logo was designed in 2024 by Co-Lab student Philip James Shaw; used with permission

FAQs

  • The administration of Writing Co-Lab is handled by three coordinators, who are themselves Co-Lab teachers, and who share that labor with the other teachers. So, for instance, things like newsletters, promotional graphics, and community events are handled by the teachers—there’s no paid publicity or administration staff. We do all that work ourselves, working collaboratively and in cooperation with one another! And the teachers have designed all of the classes themselves too. We built this coop together, and we own it, so almost all of the student tuition (upwards of 90%) goes right to the teacher who is in the classroom. Because we’re not a traditional for-profit business with all the staff that entails, we might move a little slower then you expect, so please be patient when reaching out to us, but don’t worry, we’ll get back to you… eventually!

  • Once you’ve found a Co-Lab class that you want to take from our class list, click on the “enroll” link. You will then be directed to our corsizio site, where you can pay tuition using debit or credit card, and secure your spot in the class. You’ll receive a receipt, and then you’re in! About a week or so before your first class session you’ll be put in contact with the teacher, who will pass along the zoom information and whatever else you’ll need to know about the class.

  • Once you have secured your spot in the class (see above), then your teacher will be in touch with all the information that you need before the first class session.

  • Our teachers use Zoom for their online classes. Live captioning is now a built-in feature, so if you’d like the teacher to have that turned on, please let them know directly. For any other accommodations, get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

  • Hey now, that’s not technically a question. Seriously though, drop us a line via our contact form!