Class Starting in January: Online Writing Group

For those interested in online writing classes: Starting later this month, I’m teaching the Online Writing Group for the Writer’s Studio, part of the University of Chicago’s Graham School. As the course description says:

You will generate and revise your creative work (up to 4,000 words of prose or eight pages of poetry at a time) alongside a supportive, dedicated cohort of writers. Regardless of location and schedule, this group can help you find motivation, inspiration, and creative breakthroughs.

This course is a great option for writers who are looking for peer feedback and the ultimate in flexibility. There are three workshop deadlines over the course of eight weeks, but other than that, it’s entirely up to you how much you commit to doing the readings or dip in and out of the various discussion boards.

You can register for the course here. And if January–March isn’t a good window for you but you’re still interested in the course, check back again in a couple of months—I’ll be teaching the April–June session as well.

New Class: Revising the Short Essay

To writers in the Chicago area: In September, I'll be teaching "Revising the Short Essay," a new class at the Writer's Studio. Description:

This workshop is for writers of personal, narrative, or literary essays working on pieces of approximately 3,000 words or fewer. Reading fellow students’ work and examples by masters of the form, we will examine the balance of scene, exposition, and rumination. In revision, we will practice structural and line editing, with a focus on beginnings and endings, voice, pacing, transitions, and the art of cutting to length. And we will discuss strategies for publishing your polished work. Students should be prepared to submit a draft to the instructor a week before the first class meeting.

If you've been toiling away at writing essays on your own, this course will be a great opportunity to get feedback and draw inspiration from a group of dedicated writers. You can sign up here.

Teaching in May: On Revising Well

To Chicagoland writers: On Wednesday afternoons in May, I'll be teaching a course at the Writer's Studio, all about revision—one of my favorite things! A brief description:

Only through revision do we see what we have written. In this craft workshop for writers of fiction and nonfiction, we will explore techniques for reading closely and heightening the impact of your prose. Exercises and readings on structure, word choice, ambiguity, punctuation, the art of trimming, and other topics will help you refine the tone, clarity, and rhythm of your work.

During class, students will learn by doing, editing individually and collectively. Readings will include tip sheets, before-and-after examples from published authors, and gleefully pedantic essays on usage and other matters. If you'd like to sign up, please visit this link, click "On Revising Well," and register online.

Course Announcement: Editing Your Work

To all the Chicago-area writers: Three weeks from today, I begin teaching a four-week course called Editing Your Work, through the Writer’s Studio at the University of Chicago Graham School. In the class, we will examine strategies by which writers may read their own work with fresh eyes; discuss the different levels of editing; look at “before and after” examples from published writers; and practice applying various techniques of revision to our work.

And now a brief tangent from the Department of Coincidence:

I was going through my course materials from last year and made an amusing discovery. For one session, I had students read a short essay called “The Joys of Trimming” (because oh, how I love trimming!). I hadn’t remembered this, but the essay was written by the novelist Pamela Erens—whose latest book, Eleven Hours, I happened to review for the NYT Book Review earlier this month.

The Erens essay will probably be on the reading list again, so if you check it out now, you’ll be a step ahead. To register for my class, or any other Writer’s Studio courses, please visit this page and click on “search courses.”

Live, From Chicago ...

I'm teaching a class this summer — Editing Your Work — at the Writer's Studio, part of the University of Chicago's Graham School. If you're in Chicago and curious about this or any of the Writer's Studio's other offerings, please come to this open house on Thursday, March 31. I'll be presenting a mini-lecture, and other faculty members and alumni will be lecturing and reading. You can also sign up to participate in an open mic, if you have an excerpt of prose, poetry, or a script/play you'd like to share.

As for my class: a brief description is below. If you're interested in registering, you can do so here.