Sackett Street Writers

8,000+ creative writers since 2002 in NYC & ONLINE

1-day Publishing Intensive: Perfecting Your Nonfiction Book Proposal – 6.18

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A writing sample is not necessary to apply for this workshop.

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51ocLHHmaQL._AA160_Writers participating in this 3-hour workshop will bring in a short section of prose to revise on-site at a microlevel, zoning in on the paragraph, line, and words utilized to propel a piece forward. Examples in various genres will be supplied and reviewed for word choices and structure before critiquing each participant’s material as a group. Time will be spent on in-class revision based on feedback and sharing revised portions. This class is intended to help those with work that may need a closer edit for consistency and voice.

Begins: June 18, 2016
Day/Time: Saturday 2pm – 5pm
Instructor: Brian Gresko
Location: Bookcourt Bookstore (Cobble Hill)
Fee: $75.00 (includes 10% coupon for an 8-week class)

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7-week Master Fiction Intensive – begins 7.7.25 – Carroll Gardens

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Instructor: Ted Thompson
Dates: begins July 7 | meets Tues 7-9pm
Location: Carroll Gardens | 243 Smith St
Fee: $975 / $875 for returning Sackett writers

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.

Our Master Fiction Workshop is a selective class aimed at writers looking to polish their work for publication. Class is taught by our most experienced advanced fiction instructor whose students have gone on to attend top MFA programs and win prestigious awards. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work and typed feedback from the instructor is included, as well as a private conference.

Writers should have extensive writing and writing class/workshop experience.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

APPLY NOW

Ted Thompson is the author of The Land of Steady Habits, which was published by Little, Brown and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. The novel was adapted by Nicole Holofcener for a feature film starring Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco and Connie Britton, released in 2017. His short stories have been published in Tin House, American Short Fiction, One Teen Story and Best New American Voices, and he has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MacDowell Colony. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ted has proudly taught for Sackett for over thirteen years, as well as at Amherst College and in the Brooklyn College MFA program. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

6-week Advanced Fiction – begins 7.10.25 – Carroll Gardens

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Instructor: Beth Morgan
Dates: begins July 10 | Thurs 7-9pm
Location: Carroll Gardens
Class fee: $650 | returning writers receive a $25 discount

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.

Our Fiction II/III Workshop is aimed at writers looking to create a regular practice and master the essentials and are looking for a community of peers ready to offer insightful, impartial feedback on works in progress. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work, and analysis of published writing to inspire and inform.

Writers should have writing and writing class/workshop experience.

APPLY NOW

Beth Morgan is the author of A Touch of Jen, which she has also adapted for the screen. A Touch of Jen was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a best book of the year by The Rumpus. Her short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, The Baffler, and The Kenyon Review online.

6-week Master Fiction Writing – begins 7.9.25 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Ted Thompson
Dates: begins July 9 | meets Wed 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $835 / $770 for returning Sackett writers

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.

Our Master Fiction Workshop is a selective class aimed at writers looking to polish their work for publication. Class is taught by our most experienced advanced fiction instructor whose students have gone on to attend top MFA programs and win prestigious awards. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work and typed feedback from the instructor is included, as well as a private conference.

Writers should have extensive writing and writing class/workshop experience.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

APPLY NOW

Ted Thompson is the author of The Land of Steady Habits, which was published by Little, Brown and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. The novel was adapted by Nicole Holofcener for a feature film starring Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco and Connie Britton, released in 2017. His short stories have been published in Tin House, American Short Fiction, One Teen Story and Best New American Voices, and he has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MacDowell Colony. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ted has proudly taught for Sackett for over thirteen years, as well as at Amherst College and in the Brooklyn College MFA program. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

6-week Advanced Fiction – begins 7.9.25

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Instructor: Beth Morgan
Dates: begins July 9 | Wed 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope – 237 5th Ave
Class fee: $650 | returning writers receive a $25 discount

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.

Our Fiction II/III Workshop is aimed at writers looking to create a regular practice and master the essentials and are looking for a community of peers ready to offer insightful, impartial feedback on works in progress. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work, and analysis of published writing to inspire and inform.

Writers should have writing and writing class/workshop experience.

APPLY NOW

Beth Morgan is the author of A Touch of Jen, which she has also adapted for the screen. A Touch of Jen was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a best book of the year by The Rumpus. Her short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, The Baffler, and The Kenyon Review online.

6-wk Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins 7.10.25 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Amy Shearn
Dates: begins July 10| meets once a wk | THURS 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $575 | $550 for returning Sackett writers

A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Writing Sprints is an exercise-intensive course designed to “unstick” writers struggling to start or continue new projects, boosting writing productivity.  The course relies heavily on writing exercises (for both fiction & nonfiction writers).  Students will produce a ton of new work in this class, and receive feedback on that work from the instructor and his or her classmates. This class is for writers of all levels looking for inspiration and motivation.

This workshop is open to writers working in all genres, and writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome to join.

APPLY NOW

6-week Personal Essay & Memoir – begins 7.14.25 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Alexandra Butler
Dates: begins July 14 | Mon 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $650 | $620 for returning writers

A private conference with the instructor is included.

A writing sample is recommended for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a 3-5 page sample.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. In-class writing prompts will be used to inspire and motivate students to produce new work.

This workshop is open to writers working on memoir and personal essays, and writers should have both writing and workshopping experience.

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Alexandra Butler is the author of Walking the Night Road, a memoir published by Columbia University Press, and a book of poems, Circling the Same, published by Moran Moran. She has written for the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. Alex co-wrote two short films, Ivy Holland, produced by Tribeca Films, and The Song is You, featured in The New Yorker magazine’s Screening Room Series. She works as a script consultant in both film and the art world. She is currently at work on a novel titled Bone Break Marble and a collection of short stories. You can read more about her in The New York Times: Introducing a Poet Who Works in 3-D. Alex holds a Master of Social Work from Columbia University and is a therapist in a bilingual group practice in her hometown of New York City.

5-wk Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins 7.22.25 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Meg Charlton
Dates: begins July 22| meets once a wk | TUES 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $485 | $465 for returning Sackett writers

A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Writing Sprints is an exercise-intensive course designed to “unstick” writers struggling to start or continue new projects, boosting writing productivity.  The course relies heavily on writing exercises (for both fiction & nonfiction writers).  Students will produce a ton of new work in this class, and receive feedback on that work from the instructor and his or her classmates. This class is for writers of all levels looking for inspiration and motivation.

This workshop is open to writers working in all genres, and writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome to join.

APPLY NOW

Meg Charlton is a writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Yale Review, Slate, Lux, Atlas Obscura and Vice, and the anthology Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. Her writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and covered in Indiewire, Above the Law, and Australian National Radio’s Future Tense. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. Her debut novel VOYAGERS is forthcoming from Harper.

6-wk ONLINE Writing Sprints generative class (all genres) – begins 7.1.25

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Begins: July 1, 2025
Instructor: Madeleine Crum
Location: Online (wkly video meet-up Tues* 7-9pm ET) *no class the week of 7.15
Fee: $475 | returning writers receive a $25 discount

A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info. 

Writing Sprints is an exercise-intensive course designed to “unstick” writers struggling to start or continue new projects, boosting writing productivity.  The course relies heavily on writing exercises (for both fiction & nonfiction writers).  Students will produce a ton of new work in this class, and receive feedback on that work from the instructor and his or her classmates. This class is for writers of all levels looking for inspiration and motivation.

This workshop is open to writers working in all genres, and writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome to join.

APPLY NOW

Madeleine Crum is a writer and editor living in New York by way of Texas. Her recent fiction, narrative nonfiction, and criticism can be found in The Baffler, The Washington Post, Vulture, Vice, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Triangle House, and Joyland Magazine, where she’s an editor for the Northeast section. She teaches writing at The School of the New York Times and Brooklyn College, where she received an MFA in Fiction and the Himan Brown Creative Writing Award.

 

12-wk VIRTUAL Manuscript Generator I (novels, memoirs, story & essay collections) – begins 6.26.25

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Dates: begins June 26, 2025
Instructor: Monica West
Location: Meetings via video every OTHER Thurs 7-9pm ET
Fee: $1150 | $1050 for returning Sackett writers

This generative class open to novelists, memoirists, and writers working on story and essay collections.

This section of Manuscript Generator is intended for writers who have not participated in a previous Manuscript Generator class.

A writing sample is not required but recommended for this class.

Every other week you will submit up to 5,000 words of your manuscript to the instructor and she will provide you with written feedback. You’ll also have the opportunity to receive feedback from your fellow writers on your project synopsis or outline, scene exercises, and your manuscript’s opening paragraphs. The two-hour bi-weekly meetings will be the chance for you to discuss your projects and engage with writing prompts in shared group writing time. The instructor also offers a 30-minute one-on-one consultation at the end of the course to discuss your manuscript in depth.

The workshop is open to writers who have completed one or more chapters of a novel or memoir, as well as writers working on short story and/or essay collections. Writers participating in this course will learn how to recognize the successful techniques in their writing – what engages the reader, and how that success is achieved. Carefully planned lessons and online discussions will focus on analyzing the many choices (point-of-view, tone, characterizing details, pacing, etc.) a writer must make concerning structure, character and language. This course is intended for writers who have some experience writing and workshopping.
A private conference with the instructor is included.

APPLY NOW

Monica West is the author of the novel Revival Season which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a finalist for the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she received her MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she was a Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow. She has received fellowships and residencies from Kimbilio Fiction, Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Bread Loaf. She earned her B.A. in English Literature from Duke University and her M.A. in English and American Literature from New York University. She currently lives in Seattle where she teaches at the University of San Francisco.

6-week ONLINE Personal Essay & Memoir I/II – begins 7.2.25

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Instructor: Sarah Herrington
Dates: begins July 2
Location: Online (wkly video meetup Wed 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $575 ($25 discount for returning writers)

A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. In-class writing prompts will be used to inspire and motivate students to produce new work.

Our online class platform includes thoughtful craft lessons to inform and inspire writers, a class homepage for discussions, book recommendations and more, and an in-line commenting tool that allows for supportive and constructive feedback.

This workshop is open to writers working on memoir and personal essays, and writers at all levels of skill and experience are welcome to join.

APPLY NOW

Sarah Herrington is an essayist, poet, editor and teacher. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love, Anxiety, Solver Stories and OpEd columns, the LATimes, SFChronicle, Tin House, Slice, NYLON, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Interview, Entropy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Poets and Writers magazine, Oprah magazine and other publications. She’s the author of four books on yoga and spirituality. She holds MFAs from New York University and Lesley University and teaches at Loyola Marymount University.

6-week MFA Application Prep Workshop (fiction & nonfiction) – begins 7.8.25

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Instructor: Keija Parssinen
Begins: July 8, 2025
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up TUES 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $650 ($600 for returning writers)

A writing sample is recommended for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a sample of your writing.

More than 1,000 writers have participated in The MFA Application Prep Workshop and gone on to attend MFA programs nationwide and internationally. The workshop is geared toward helping writers choose and even polish their application writing samples and personal statements, as well as giving writers advice on all aspects of the application process. Writers have two opportunities to share their writing sample pages (up to 6250 words each time) and receive detailed feedback on those samples and on their personal essay. A private conference with the instructor is also included.

Writers have access to our online class platform, Wetink, where the instructor posts weekly craft lessons, as well as informative and encouraging advice on the application process. The platform also includes a class discussion page and a useful line comment tool to use when critiquing your classmates’ work — a perfect way to prep for your future MFA experience.
The class is open to both fiction and nonfiction writers and will help writers through every stage of the MFA application process, all while participating in a supportive group of writers with the same goals.

Keija Parssinen graduated cum laude from Princeton University, where she studied English literature and received a certificate from the Program for the Study of Women and Gender. She earned her MFA at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote fellow, a Teaching and Writing fellow, and the student editor of the Iowa Short Fiction contest. After finishing the program, she won a Michener-Copernicus award for her debut novel, The Ruins of Us, which was published in the US (HarperCollins), UK (Faber& Faber), Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Italy (Newton Compton Editori) and around the Middle East. The novel was long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize, was chosen as Book of the Month by National Geographic Traveler, and was selected as a Best Book of the Middle East Region by Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper. In Fall 2019, it was published in Arabic by the Syrian Ministry of Culture.

Her second novel, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis, won an Alex Award from the American Library Association, was chosen as Book of the Month by Emily St. John Mandel, and was selected as a Best Book of the Year by the Kansas City Star, Lone Star Literary Life, Missouri Life, Vox Magazine, and Brazos Bookstore.

Her short fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in the New York Review of Books Daily, Gulf Coast, The Southern Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, the Lonely Planet travel-writing anthologies, World Literature Today, Slate, The Arkansas International, The Brooklyn Quarterly, Slice Magazine, Salon, Five Chapters, the New Delta Review, Marie Claire, Off Assignment, and elsewhere. Her work has been supported by fellowships and residencies from Hedgebrook, the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, the Vermont Studio Center, Playa Summer Lake, the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities, and the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow, where she was a My Time Fellow.

Keija was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for twelve years before her family moved to Austin, Texas. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Kenyon College and lives in Ohio with her family.

6-week Online Writing Speculative & Fantastical Fiction – begins 7.10.25

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Begins: July 10, 2025
Instructor: Justin Feinstein
Location: Online (wkly video meet-up Thurs 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $500 ($475 for returning writers)

A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Through group discussion of student work plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of speculative and fantastical fiction. We will focus on some of the classic sticking points of writing in this genre: effective world-building, balancing character against plot, maintaining consistent story logic, and making sure all elements of the writing serve the story. This class seeks to dispel the myths of the so-called differences between “genre” fiction and literary fiction: every story one writes, whether it’s a realistic family drama or a saga set on a spaceship, should be built upon good prose, complex characters, empathy and specificity. Fantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction, or whatever label you choose can and should be well-written literary work, and in this class we will seek to give you the tools to do just that.

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Justin Feinstein is a writer across multiple mediums, whose debut novel will be published by Tachyon Publications in March 2026. His nonfiction includes writing about jazz for the Associated Press, about the UFC for VICE, and about being a celebrity doppelgänger for Salon. Justin’s work as an advertising copywriter and creative director has received accolades from The New York Times, Adweek and BuzzFeed. He was a Berklee-trained professional musician in a past life, and also earned an MA in media studies from The New School. Justin lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

6-week ONLINE Fiction Writing (intermediate & advanced) – begins wk of 7.10.25

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Instructor: Marissa Levien
Begins: wk of July 7, 2025
Location: Online (wkly video meet-up wknight tbd 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $600 ($575 for returning writers)

A writing sample is recommended for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a sample of your writing.

Our Advanced Fiction Workshop is aimed at writers who have mastered the essentials and are looking for a community of peers ready to offer insightful, impartial feedback on works in progress. Whether you’re a writer looking to polish work for publication, looking for a fresh perspective, looking to climb the next hurdle, or simply missing the motivation and comradery only a small workshop can offer, our Fiction Workshop is designed to get you writing. Come geek out with your fellow lit nerds and walk away with a renewed sense of purpose.

Writers have two opportunities to share work with the class and receive detailed feedback and a class discussion dedicated to their writing.

Writers should have both writing and writing class experience.

APPLY NOW

Marissa Levien received her MFA from Stony Brook University, where she also helped run the Southampton Writers Conference. Her debut novel The World Gives Way was released by Hachette in 2021, earning praise from The New York Times, Vulture, Literary Hub, Publishers Weekly, and a selection as an IndieNext Pick. Her work has been published in Writer’s Digest, Literary Hub, Publisher’s Weekly, Saint Ann’s Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has previously taught workshops for Stony Brook University, John Jermain Workshops, and Harlem Educational Activities Fund.

8-wk Advanced Fiction – begins 9.9.25 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Beth Morgan
Dates: begins Sept 9 | Thurs 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope
Class fee: $850 | returning writers receive a $50 discount

A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.

Our Fiction II/III Workshop is aimed at writers looking to create a regular practice and master the essentials and are looking for a community of peers ready to offer insightful, impartial feedback on works in progress. Class time is spent on in-depth discussion of student work, and analysis of published writing to inspire and inform.

Writers should have writing and writing class/workshop experience.

APPLY NOW

Beth Morgan is the author of A Touch of Jen, which she has also adapted for the screen. A Touch of Jen was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a best book of the year by The Rumpus. Her short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, The Baffler, and The Kenyon Review online.