Creative Writing Classes

I teach generative classes that help writers tap into the liberating power of constraints, the complexities of aliveness, and creative practices that nurture and inspire the artistic self.

My upcoming classes and workshops (all live and online) include:

• Oulipo: Generative Experiments in Constrained Writing | 6 sessions, Tuesdays, Sept 16 to Oct 21, Online via Literary Arts, 5 to 7 p.m. Pacific - Seats open!
  Formed in France in 1960 by poet Raymond Queneau and mathematician François Le Lionnais, the members of Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle ~ Workshop for Potential Literature) found inspiration at the intersection of creative constraints and the freedom to break form. This course is a guide to the spirit and ethos of Oulipo and their collaborative experimental writing approach, designed to free the mind through constraint.

  As a collective, we will drink mightily from Oulipo’s seriously playful postures and endless outcomes to create the strange, the uncanny, and the inspired. Together we will become, as Queneau described, “rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape.” Each session will offer generative prompts and experimental forms for writers to respond to. Attendees will leave this hands-on course with a portfolio of new starts that include lipograms, S+7, palindromes, snowballs, contrapuntals, and more. No prior knowledge or skills required other than a sense of curiosity and a desire to test, try, and experiment with writing.

• On Ghosts, Ghosting & Haunts | 6 sessions, Thursdays, Sept 18 to Oct 23, Online via Morbid Anatomy, 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific / 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern - Seats open!
  What is a ghost if not spirit energy yearning for form and expression? In our time together, we’ll create new writing in response to a mix of prompts and constraints that help us peer beyond the veil. Each week, we’ll explore a range of structures capable of hosting ghosts, from epistolary to erasure, concrete shapes, the haunted dialogues of contrapuntals, and the glorious twisting and (re)turning form of obsession: the sestina. What’s following us? What can we not bear to let go of? What can we finally put to rest? Let’s find out.

• Forms of Care: Creative Writing Workshops for Caregivers | 3 sessions, Oct 4, Oct 11 & Oct 18; 1 to 2:30 p.m. PT, IN-PERSON!
  Location: Burien Library, 400 SW 152nd Street, Suite 100, Burien, WA (pre-registration required - stay tuned for link)
  Join me for 3 free community writing workshops designed for caregivers of partners with life-threatening or long-term illnesses. Each session offers opportunities for inspiration, creative reflection, and the chance to share new writing in a supportive small-group setting.

  Oct 4: The Shape of Change: Victoria Chang’s OBIT will guide us in writing the shape of change, the grief that arises in response, and what is born on the other side.

  Oct 11: Exploring the Underworld: Poems about the myth of Persephone will help us explore the life-death-rebirth cycle we face as caregivers transiting between illness, the healthcare system, and the land of the well.

  Oct 18: Terminal Surreal: A study of death is a study of life: what we value and what we do with the time we have. Martha Silano’s Terminal Surreal: Poems, published after her death, offers ideas for engaging tenderly, stoically, and even playfully with our own terminal condition.

  This project was funded, in part, by a grant from 4Culture.

• Autumn Generative Writing Circle | TBD
  Writing circles are intimate generative sessions designed to spark new writing, new ideas, and creative conviviality. Stay tuned for fall offerings…

• Finishing School: Individual Writing in Community | Online
  Sometimes, to get writing done, we need camaraderie—and an appointment on the calendar. Finishing School is a space to work on individual projects in community. Think of it as study buddies, a virtual cafe, an accountability date… There’s no preparation, no homework, and no pressure to produce anything. Just show up, say a warm hello, and get crackin’ on whatever you wish. Finishing School is my gratis offering to the community of writers who join my writing circles each year.