Class Description
The skill of craft and the cultivation of a writing practice are a marriage. A writer cannot have one without the other. Writers push full steam to learn craft, and often lose steam while writing. How can a writer cultivate a sustainable, generative writing practice? "Just sit down and write" is the least sustainable piece of writing advice. This is more than "writer's block." This is about how to write in a chaotic world.
This 6-week session is for those who can't seem to figure out how to breakthrough, inconsistently going through stops and starts, or maybe there is a project longing to be completed and you just don't know how to begin again. From the lens of a writer and editor, these sessions will encourage writers to go deeper and interrogate one's relationship to their writing practice. Each week we will engage with in-class writing exercises that will ask questions about how to craft a vision for your writing practice, finding your voice, and identify the impact of entering the writing space and leaving it. Merging craft and writing practice, each week we'll tap into entryways to develop your stories and be inspired by writers that include Ocean Vuong, Myriam J.A. Chancy, Sherry Quan Lee, Gregory Pardlo, Edwidge Danticat, and Alexander Chee.
Writers will exit these sessions invigorated and more confident. You'll leave with a vault of practical and accessible writing tools that will ignite that inner fire that can be utilized to identify why you're not writing...and how to begin.
*This class is intended for writers who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color). While writing that may deal with themes of race, culture, and heritage is certainly welcome, writers can take on any topic they like in this workshop.
Class Format
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.