Upcoming Events › Classes and Workshops

Your memoir, hybrid memoir, or nonfiction book is in the works. Maybe you’re halfway through and are wondering how to build your platform or make your book stand apart from other memoirs on the shelf. Or maybe you’ve finished it and are excited to get it out into the world. This class will take you through the marketing process step by step. From platform to querying to finding the right representative, literary agent and author Marisa Zeppieri and her client…

WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 28 — DEC. 2 | “My pencils outlast their erasers.” — Vladimir Nabokov   Have you “finished” a story or personal essay that you know needs more work but feel unsure of how to proceed? Do you need feedback, encouragement, and the structure of a group to get back to work? In this class, we will workshop stories and personal essays with feedback aimed at bringing your piece to the next level. We will practice in-class writing exercises targeted at…

Writing and pitching stories from the POV of a marginalized identity like a sex worker and/or sex trafficking survivor can be extraordinarily frustrating. If editors do give you a chance at being published, there is often the battle of expectations dictated by someone who has never spent a day in the sex industry. How can writers in the sex industry dodge being pigeon-holed by editors? How can writers in the sex industry break out into writing about non sex industry-related…

“Have you always wanted to write but are stumped by the way to tell your own story?” asks instructor Jennifer Lewis. “In this remote class, by exploring different types of creative nonfiction, including personal essay, memoir and autofiction, you will find the unique way to bring your story to life.” In addition to course readings from authors like Maggie Nelson, Kiese Laymon and Ocean Vuong, class will be comprised of generative writing exercises and workshops. Students will learn how to…

THURSDAYS, OCT. 29 — NOV. 11  |  Living in times marked by relentless and intersecting crises, the serious writer must ask, “Where is the literature that responds to this astonishing moment?” Our goal for this class is to answer the question by crafting our own, by writing crisis. This introduction to the art of writing the prose of crisis—memoir, journalism, different genres of fiction and science fiction—(and poetry if there’s interest) will begin by looking at the crisis in literature…

Now celebrating over 15 years at The Writing Salon, this workshop draws people who want to jumpstart their poetry practice and to keep the engine oiled. You’ll do plenty of writing and reading, and we’ll have lively discussions about both the craft and the process(es) of poetry. Each weekly homework assignment provides fresh angles of approach designed to surprise, even startle, both the writers and their readers. “We all get stuck in familiar ruts,” says instructor Julie Bruck, “and this…

You write something down and it’s awkward, trivial, artificial, approximate. But with effort . . . you can get it to open up, and expose what’s lurking there beyond the clumsy thing you first put down. —Deborah Eisenberg “What makes a story compelling?” asks instructor Andy Touhy. “More importantly, what are the ways to make it compelling? In this online workshop, we’ll begin to really think about how to tell a good tale (short story or novel). "Opening lines matter, as does point…

Send your book out without the self-doubt. Instead work with one of our editors to get your manuscript in shape.   In this month-long one-on-one intensive, an experienced published author will closely read your entire book and mentor you, giving focused editorial feedback on the first 25 pages and an editorial letter to guide revision of the rest. There will be significant opportunity for extended correspondence with your mentor, who will provide specific suggestions for revision and offer general advice…

Becoming an accomplished fiction writer means developing an amalgam of skills. You need to write sentences that flow, to master dialogue and description, to construct scenes and stories that are vivid and paced well. And, of course, you need to create characters who pull on the emotions of your reader. Learning these skills can be a challenge, but it is also immense fun. Says instructor, Elaine Beale, “I love writing fiction because I get to create characters, worlds, and stories.…

“Contemporary U.S. poetry is vibrant, complicated, and realer than ever — something that gives me hope as a writer,” says instructor Alan Chazaro. “It’s a family I’m proud to be a part of, and one that can teach us how to become our best creative selves while representing not only individual perspectives, but those of communities.” In this online class, we will tap into the wider world we are rooted in--and the communities we are shaped by--as sources of inspiration…

This particular version of Round Robin with a run time of three weeks is built with the holidays in mind. It is designed to offer writers a separate space of reflection, alongside of holiday immersion. Like the traditional eight-week version of the class, the Holiday Round Robin is structured around a carefully facilitated exchange of daily emailed writings based on prompts provided by the facilitator and the participants. Partners offer brief written feedback on one another’s work. The writings are based on…

Send your book out without the self-doubt. Instead work with one of our editors to get your manuscript in shape.   In this month-long one-on-one intensive, an experienced published author will closely read your entire book and mentor you, giving focused editorial feedback on the first 25 pages and an editorial letter to guide revision of the rest.  There will be significant opportunity for extended correspondence with your mentor, who will provide specific suggestions for revision and offer general advice…

We’re beginning to remember that the first poets didn’t come out of a classroom, that poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, “Ahhh.” That was the first poem. --Lucille Clifton In this time of social distancing and pandemic, this three-session remote workshop is designed to bypass constriction and limitation by offering portals into imagery, language, and creative expression. Using a variety of prompts,…