Live & Recorded Classes
Live & Recorded Classes
Find community and grow your craft in our online workshops. We host both synchronous and asynchronous courses using Zoom and Canvas, an easily accessible, private online platform. Whether you’re a new writer or a well-published pro, you’ll find motivation, structure, constructive criticism, and a dedicated cohort.
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Spring 2024 Sunday Masterclasses
MEGAN STIELSTRA: Let Others Carry It: Publishing as Practice, PURCHASE RECORDING
LET OTHERS CARRY IT: PUBLISHING AS PRACTICE
Instructor: Megan Stielstra
Date and Time: PURCHASE RECORDING
Cost: $60
Open to: All writers
“Once the work is done, it’s not yours anymore,” wrote Frank Chimero. “If the thing you make goes anywhere, it’s because other people carried it.” The choice of if, when, and how to share our work with others is a deeply personal decision, both terrifying and exhilarating. How do you get there? And once you’re there, what do you… do?
This two-hour masterclass reframes publication as a vital and informative part of the writing practice, as opposed to rejection/acceptance roulette. How can our unique publication goals influence the rewriting process? How does the consideration of a wider audience take our work to the next level and when should we leave those (scary and often very loud) outside voices at the door? And how can we demystify the nuts-and-bolts of submitting—finding the right literary journals or publishing houses, writing a solid cover letter, connecting with editors—and get back to what we’re all here to do: carry each other’s stories.
Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, the Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, Guernica, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Theatre, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor at Northwestern University Press.
BETH KEPHART: Writing Advanced by Categories: Obsessions into Stories, PURCHASE RECORDING
WRITING ADVANCED BY CATEGORIES: TURNING OUR OBSESSIONS INTO STORIES
Instructor: Beth Kephart
Date and Time: PURCHASE RECORDING
Cost: $60
Open to: All fiction and nonfiction writers, working at any stage of their careers
Writing, let’s face it, is hard. Life gets in the way. Discipline brings us back to our desks but so, in the end, do our obsessions. In this two-hour, prompt-rich workshop, we’ll be thinking about how to make the most of our obsessions in our writing practice and in our storylines. We’ll be looking to writers like Michelle Zauner, Will Dowd, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kate Zambreno, and Claire-Louse Bennett for inspiration and to obsessions like food, weather, the natural world, and books. We’ll transform lists into metaphors and thru-lines. We’ll launch sentences. We’ll leave the session with a better understanding of what sparks us as we write, how our own sparks can become the stuff that galvanizes readers, and some brand-new passages.
Read Beth’s newest craft essay, I TOOK INSTRUCTIONS FROM MY HANDS, on writers as makers of material craft.
Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of nearly 40 books in multiple genres, an award-winning teacher, co-founder of Juncture Workshops, and a book artist. Beth’s newest book, the acclaimed My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera, sprang from her own obsession with paper. Beth’s most recent craft books are We Are the Words: The Master Memoir Class and Consequential Truths: On Writing the Lived Life. More at bethkephartbooks.com and bind-arts.com. Read Michelle Fost’s interview with Beth about My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera here.
JESS SILFA: Show Us Your Best: A Guide to Creative Writing MFA Applications, Masterclass, PURCHASE RECORDING
SHOW US YOUR BEST: A GUIDE TO CREATIVE WRITING MFA APPLICATIONS
Instructor: Jess Sifla
Date and Time: PURCHASE RECORDING
Cost: $60
Open to: All writers, especially those interested in applying for an MFA
This two-hour masterclass will equip aspiring writers with the skills, insights, and strategies to craft compelling MFA applications. Led by a writer with a wealth of knowledge in the MFA application process, this class is tailored to enhance your writing portfolio and illustrate what creative writing programs are looking for.
In this class, you will:
● Gain a comprehensive understanding of the MFA application process, including key
deadlines, program structures, and admission criteria.
● Learn the critical elements of a compelling personal statement.
● Explore techniques to connect your personal narrative with your artistic goals.
● Understand the importance of solid recommendation letters and how to approach
potential recommenders.
● Get insights on how to guide your recommenders to highlight your strengths as a writer.
● Receive guidance on selecting the right MFA programs for your writing goals.
Jess Silfa is an Afro-Latine writer from the South Bronx. They graduated with an MFA from Vanderbilt University and are currently an Albert C. Yates Fellow in the Ph.D. program at the University of Cincinnati. Jess is President of the Disabled and D/deaf Writers Caucus and has been published or has work forthcoming in ANMLY, beestung, Transition Magazine, and others.
ANNI LIU: Behind the Covers: Publishing Your Book, Masterclass, April 28
BEHIND THE COVERS: PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK
Instructor: Anni Liu
Date and Time: Sunday, April 28, 2-4 pm ET on Zoom
Can’t make it on April 28? No problem. A recording will be sent to all registrants.
Cost: $60
Open to: All writers, especially those seeking to publish a book.
During this two-hour masterclass, you will learn about the book publishing process. Guided by a prose editor at Graywolf Press who is also an award-winning poet, this class will provide insight into the journey of publication – from both the writer’s and the editor’s perspective – as well as a rare opportunity to ask your questions directly to a top editor at an important and innovative publishing house. Topics will include: pitching agents, working with an editor, and book events like launches and readings. You will leave this class armed with information and a greater understanding of how book publishing works.
Anni Liu is the author of Border Vista (Persea Books), which won the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize and was a New York Times Best Poetry Book of 2022. She’s the recipient of an Undocupoets Fellowship, a Gregory Djanikian Scholarship from The Adroit Journal, and residencies at Civitella Ranieri and the Anderson Center. She’s an editor at Graywolf Press.
SUMMER 2024
KATHRYN KULPA: Submit Your Flash (and Get It Published)! May 19
Instructor: Kathryn Kulpa
Dates: Sunday, May 19, 2024, 2-4 pm ET on Zoom
Can’t make it on May 19? No problem. A recording will be sent to all registrants.
Cost: $60
Open to writers of: Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, Hybrid Forms
Writing doesn’t stop when you pen the final line, or even when you make the final revision. If you’ve written a flash story, and it’s wonderful, you probably want it to be published so you can share it with the world—but first, there’s that pesky process called “submissions.” This class will help writers at all levels untangle the sometimes daunting process of taking your flash and microfiction from private to public.
In this class, you’ll learn:
- How to format your stories
- Tips for cover letters and bios
- Where to find journals looking for flash—and strategies for narrowing down seemingly endless lists
- How to make sense of rankings and data, and when to ignore them
- Three ways to make editors hate you (and how to make them love you, maybe
- Some strategies to survive rejection
Kathryn Kulpa has published more than 100 stories in journals from Atticus Review to X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, and her work has been chosen for Best Microfiction and the Wigleaf longlist and nominated for Best Small Fictions and the Pushcart Prize. She is senior flash editor at Cleaver and is also the author of two chapbooks, Girls on Film and Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted. She has a micro-chapbook forthcoming from Porkbelly Press, and won the 2024 Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Competition.
SOPHIE LUCIDO JOHNSON, Write Funny, Masterclass June 23
Instructor: Sophie Lucido Johnson
Dates: Sunday, June 23, 2024, 2-4 pm ET on Zoom
Can’t make it on June 23? No problem. A recording will be sent to all registrants.
Cost: $60
Open to writers of: All Genres
Since the dawn of the written word, humor has been a tool to tell the truth and target our humanity with brevity and a masterful air of ease. In fact, writing humor is no joke: there are a lot of complex principles and ideas that can make or break a piece of writing. Including humor in more serious pieces can provide levity and make deeper themes more salient, making this workshop appropriate for writers of all stripes. We will focus on the nuts and bolts of the ever-expanding genre of humor writing, and practice ways to incorporate levity into all types of compositions.
Sophie Lucido Johnson is the author of Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s); Love Without Sex: Stories on the Spectrum of Modern Relationships; and Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir in Diary Entries, Letters, and Lists. She is a cartoonist for The New Yorker Magazine, and has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Bon Appetit, The Chicago Reader, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and lots of other places. She lives in Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
BETH KEPHART: The Writing is in the Details, Masterclass, July 28
Instructor: Beth Kephart
Dates: Sunday, July 28, 2024, 2-4 pm ET on Zoom
Can’t make it on July 28? No problem. A recording will be sent to all registrants.
Cost: $60
Open to writers of: All Genres
“Details aren’t automatically interesting,” Sarah Manguso once wrote, an aphorism that rings abundantly true. Details either illuminate the story or occlude it. They establish a pattern, render a character, extend an invitation to a particular time and place—or they make a mess of things. How do we know if the details we layer into our stories are truly telling details? How can we expand our capacity to generate fresh and meaningful details, while vanquishing those that are merely fluff or, worse, self-negating contradictions? In this master class, we’ll look to the work of Claire Keegan, Elizabeth Hardwick, and James McBride—isolating key details, taking note as those details evolve across pages, and discussing the additive impact. Generative prompts will be offered, as will opportunities to collectively edit oversaturated prose that will be created expressly for this purpose. This workshop is for writers at all stages, working in all genres.
Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of nearly 40 books in multiple genres, an award-winning teacher, co-founder of Juncture Workshops, and a book artist. Beth’s newest book, the acclaimed My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera, sprang from her own obsession with paper. Beth’s most recent craft books are We Are the Words: The Master Memoir Class and Consequential Truths: On Writing the Lived Life. More at bethkephartbooks.com and bind-arts.com. Read Michelle Fost’s interview with Beth about My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera here. is the award-winning author of nearly 40 books in multiple genres, an award-winning teacher, co-founder of Juncture Workshops, and a book artist. Beth’s newest book, the acclaimed My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera, sprang from her own obsession with paper. Beth’s most recent craft books are We Are the Words: The Master Memoir Class and Consequential Truths: On Writing the Lived Life. More at bethkephartbooks.com and bind-arts.com. Read Michelle Fost’s interview with Beth about My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera here.
MEGAN STIELSTRA: Get Out of Your Head, August 25
Instructor: Megan Stielstra
Dates: Sunday, August 25, 2024, 2-4 pm ET on Zoom
Can’t make it on August 25? No problem. A recording will be sent to all registrants.
Cost: $60
Open to writers of: All Genres
“Literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind,” wrote Virginia Woolf in 1926. “On the contrary, the very opposite is true. All day, all night, the body intervenes.” This workshop examines how memory lives in the body, using our own stories and experiences as a contribution to a wider cultural and political dialogue that centers human beings. Pulling from both literary and oral storytelling traditions, we’ll engage in activities that will take our writing out of the head and into the body, generating new work and digging deeper into material you’re already exploring.
Writers and storytellers at all levels are welcome. While the workshop centers the personal essay/memoir, writers of all genres may find it useful in the development of story and character.
Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, the Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, Guernica, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Theatre, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor at Northwestern University Press.
RECORDED CLASSES: Missed it? No problem. Buy the recording.
- JESS SILFA: Show Us Your Best: A Guide to Creative Writing MFA Applications. Purchase
- MEGHAN STIELSTRA: Urgency and the Personal Essay. Purchase
- MEGAN STIELSTRA: Let Others Carry It: Publishing as Practice. Purchase
- BETH KEPHART: Writing Advanced by Categories: Obsessions into Stories. Purchase
- SARA LEVINE: Delusions of Grammar. Purchase
- SHEREE L. GREER: Point of View as Play and Practice. Purchase
- JEN MATHY: You, Inc.: Building Your Writing Brand. Purchase