Comedy and poetry have much in common. Both transform ME experiences into US responses by framing our emotions within a broader human context. Both create surprise—the Yahtzee of all social responses—which inspires us to re-engage with increasingly complex environments by firing more dopamine...

In this generative poetry writing workshop, students will learn about that which backgrounds our rhymes and our stories and our confessions and our voices: blank space. While the course will engage with practical questions—such as “What is the effect of the blank space in this stanza break here?”...

We will discard the age-old adage of “finding your voice” in favor of listening to and mimicking the extraordinary lyric voices that we encounter in this weeklong generative poetry writing course. That’s how babies learn to speak, after all; hence, writers of all levels are welcome here, insofar as...

All of us encounter dramas in life that seem tailor-made for narrative. But when sitting down to pen such seeming “ready-mades,” we often find that they don’t come to life, drag, or simply seem to lose their once-brilliant shine when committed to paper. So, we ask, how do writers such as Bill Bryson...

The first love of most readers of fiction is, of course, “story.” But what makes for a powerful story? A great story isn’t defined by subject matter. What is dross in the hands of one writer can be gold in another’s. In The Art of Fiction , John Gardner asserts that, first and foremost, a successful...

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that starting a novel seems easy enough but finishing a novel is hard as hell.” Jane Austen didn’t say that. But she and other authors have long grappled with the problem of taking initial inspiration through the marathon process of realizing a finished work...

In her poem “Homage to My Hips,” Lucille Clifton offers the reader a proud—not to mention, funny—tribute to her body. And, in turn, to the body of her people. It’s an example of how sensory perception and an awareness of our physical being can serve as keys to unlock poetic expression. On Saturday...

Fiction writers are the ones who get all the sympathy for their struggles with creative angst. But writers of nonfiction—memoirs, reportage, profiles, commentaries, and the like—also know the trials of creating, and completing, a coherent and compelling article or book. This is the place to bring...

Whether you’re a memoirist, biographer, fiction writer, or poet, objects can be used to unlock language, characters, memories, and your imagination. It’s no secret that objects can hold special meaning beyond their original functions. Open the junk drawer in your kitchen, go through boxes in your...

This course will use as its basis my craft book, Turning Life into Fiction , which has been in print for thirty years (though it’s not necessary to purchase the book). As the title suggests, our week will focus on the transformation process needed to take a real event and turn it into compelling...

Whether we’re memoirists or playwrights or writers of fiction, whether we’re at work on fantasy or romance, whether it’s a personal essay or an epic novel, whether it’s all taking place in contemporary times, in times historical, or in times utterly invented, we’re all up to the same thing—we’re...

My writing life began with fiction. It was a delight to study the tools of that particular craft, as for years I wrote, taught, and edited works of fiction. When what would eventually become my memoir began to call to me, it was a significant surprise to realize how much I could rely on those hard...