Open Writer’s Labs
Online via ZoomThese peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.
Are you looking for a different way to tap into your creativity? Are you ready to experience the curiosity, wonder, and empathy that puppetry naturally inspires? Under the guidance of puppeteer and poet Mobi Warren, workshop participants will build a simple hand puppet from paper mâché and cloth, and breathe life into the personality that emerges. The process may culminate in a poem, a short prose piece, or a monologue puppet script. Participants will be encouraged to sense the livingness in the materials used and to explore unexpected insights that emerge as the puppet acquires form. No puppetry experience is required to attend this workshop, and writers of all levels are welcome.
Join us for a night of poetry and literary celebration as we partner with our friends at Poetic Republic Coffee Co. to create an inviting space for the writing community to share words, wine, and wisdom, with a little latte or espresso on the side. Special guests are Leticia Urieta, C.L. “Rooster” Martinez and Andrew Porter.
We'll examine literary movements and their nature-based connections so that we may draw upon them for our own creativity. We'll be in nature’s classroom, the great outdoors! And we'll share and write from the comfort of the Government Canyon Gallery, which provides an enclosed classroom wrapped in windows and a gorgeous 360° view of the surrounding woods. Class participants will use body movement as a source of creativity, find their own corners of nature to sit in and write from, and participate in small group work. Bring a bottle of water and a folding chair!
Imagine stepping up to the mic at a poetry slam with less than 3 minutes to captivate the audience.
What will you say? How will you use your voice, face, and body language to take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster?
(Poetry) Slam 201 is a generative and performance workshop focused on individual and collaborative writing for live competition. We will briefly examine the history and rules of the Slam Poetry genre, write new and exciting work as individuals and teams, use a critique session to delve deep into the poem’s intended message, and focus on moving the written word from the page to the microphone. Participants will receive performance tips and feedback that will add emotional depth and impact to their spoken word delivery.
How often could someone look up from reading your manuscript and say to the person across the table, “Listen to this!”?
Do you reward the reader with juicy details and interesting word choices to sink their mind into on every single page? In this spot revision class, we will examine our written work and find opportunities to expand, rephrase, and substitute words for attention-grabbing language. We will also discuss ways to make our work fresh and unpredictable and add texture. We are not focusing on small mistakes but on small ways to take our prose to the next level.
How do we tell the story of a traumatic event or its aftermath? What if, after the event, we were silenced by others or just by our own inability to put the experience into words? In this generative course, we will experiment with different approaches to narrating real or fictional trauma while keeping in mind that each traumatic experience suggests a variety of different stories and may be narrated in a variety of different ways.
Are you ready to take the leap from writing hobbyist to professional writer? If so, gain the tools every professional writer needs to make it in a competitive field. This intensive hands-on workshop will provide you with the career savvy you need to stand out from the crowd of writers who, though they may be talented, lack the marketplace acumen they need to boost their opportunities from good to great.
Reading can be a writer's greatest teacher when it comes to learning what works and doesn’t work on the page. In this 6-week workshop, with bestselling author Laura Castoro as our guide, we will use close reading to examine how the writing pros achieve enviable work.
Master the art of the list and never get caught without something to write about! Many writers, from Dickens to Twain, and Hemingway on up to Stephen King, had (or have) a daily writing practice, and many say this discipline was their ‘great teacher’ when it comes to the craft of writing.
When writing a personal narrative, how do writers select what will most speak their truth and resonate with readers? In this 4-week course, we’ll focus on demystifying the personal narrative process by figuring out what’s a snapshot and what’s a story.
In this 4-session workshop, we will dig up memories we associate with food, and use these recollections to explore writing about the delectable in different poetic forms, including haiku, odes, sonnets, lists, etc. Each session will include mentor texts and generative work. This course is open to adult writers of all skill levels.