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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8-wk ONLINE Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins 9.10.24

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Begins: September 10, 2024
Instructor: Cherry Lou Sy
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tues 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $575

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.

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Cherry Lou Sy is a writer and playwright originally from the Philippines currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BA at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and her MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College, where she has been an adjunct lecturer in the English and American Studies departments. Cherry is also a teacher with PEN America’s DREAMing Out Loud. She has received fellowships and residencies from VONA, Tin House, and elsewhere. Love Can’t Feed You is her debut novel.

12-wk VIRTUAL Manuscript Generator I (novels, memoirs, story & essay collections) – begins 9.24.24

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Dates: begins September 24
Instructor: Monica West
Location: Meetings via video every other week on Tues 7-9pm ET
Fee: $1050.00

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.

8-week ONLINE Advanced Fiction Writing – begins 10.1.24

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Instructor: Eskor David Johnson
Begins: Oct 1, 2024
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up TUES 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $700

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.

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Eskor David Johnson is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago and the United States. His novel, PAY AS YOU GO, was a finalist for the 2023 Young Lions Fiction Award, longlisted for the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, shortlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize, and named a best book of 2023 by NPR. His writing has appeared in BOMB Magazine, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. A graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was the recipient of the Richard Yates Short Story Prize, the Maytag Fellowship and the Teaching-Writing Fellowship, he currently lives in New York City.

6-week ONLINE Writing Autofiction – begins 10.8.24

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Dates: begins October 8, 2024
Instructor: Linni Kral
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tues 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $525

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

Start, finish, or polish your autofiction story in this supportive, genre-defying workshop in which we’ll explore the blurry space between novel and memoir that is autofiction. This popular modern sub-genre houses work from writers as varied as Sherman Alexie, James Baldwin, Elif Batuman, Alexander Chee, Teju Cole, Annie Ernaux, Sheila Heti, Ernest Hemingway, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ben Lerner, and Ocean Vuong, many of whom we’ll read in this workshop. Open to writers both new to autofiction and long familiar with it, this course will explore the origins and merits of this at-times contentious sub-genre and examine the craft unique to it. Students will read published examples, write to autofiction prompts, and workshop each other’s writing.

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

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Linni Kral is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and PEN Prison Writing Mentor whose work has been published in The Atlantic, Slate, Condé Nast Traveler, The Village Voice, and Atlas Obscura, among others. She studied writing at Occidental College and Boston University, read for literary agents Lucy Carson and Molly Friedrich, and served as Editor-at-Large for food magazines GRLSQUASH and Put A Egg On It. In 2019, she published a book of essays and poems titled SADSPRING. She is currently at work on a novel.

6-week Online Writing Speculative & Fantastical Fiction – begins 10.1.24

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Begins: Oct 1, 2024
Instructor: Natalka Burian
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tues 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $525

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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Natalka Burian is the author of the young adult novel, Welcome to the Slipstream, the cocktail cookbook, A Woman’s Drink, and two novels, Daughters of the Wild and The Night Shift. She is the co-owner of two bars, Elsa and Ramona, as well as the co-founder of The Freya Project, a non-profit reading series that supports community-based activism and annually awards five unrestricted grants to further the work of women and non-binary writers. She received an MA from Columbia University where she studied Eastern European literature.  Natalka, her bars and books have been featured in The New Yorker, Elle, Vogue, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She grew up on a farm, but now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

6-week ONLINE Writing for Young Adult & Middle Grade – begins 10.15.24

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Begins: October 15, 2024
Instructor: Claire Ahn
Location: Online (Tues 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $525

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

Start, finish, or polish your YA or MG novel in this supportive, proactive workshop. Brief lectures, tailored to students’ needs and interests, cover topics such as character development, voice and tone, plot, world-building, dialogue, romance, pacing, scene structure, querying agents, the business of publishing, and time management for writers.

Students will have opportunities to workshop writing with the class and receive written feedback from the instructor and fellow students. This course is intended for students with some writing experience. All YA or MG genres are welcome.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

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Claire Ahn grew up in Seoul, Korea and still considers it her home. She moved to New York to attend university and now lives in Long Island City with her husband, toddler, and their dog, Dante. She writes about transcultural experiences and the traditions, values, and legacies that shape who we are. She’s currently writing her second book with Penguin Random House, and her debut novel — I GUESS I LIVE HERE NOW — was selected as Seventeen’s book club pick.

8-week Online MFA Application Prep Workshop – begins 10.2.24

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THIS CLASS IS FULL.

Please fill out an application to work with one of our MFA Application consultants.

Instructor: Julia Fierro
Dates: begins October 10, 2024
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Wed 7-9:30pm ET)
Fee: $950

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

The workshop is intended for writers who are applying to (or considering applying to) MFA graduate programs in creative writing and uses in-class discussion, handouts and instructor advice to help students decide what programs are a good fit. Additionally, the course features plenty of advice on the personal essay, recommendation letters, choosing work for manuscripts, and discussion of the pros and cons of various programs. The stories/essays/excerpts students intend on including in their applications will be workshopped, and feedback from the instructor and class participants will help polish application manuscripts. This course is open to story-writers, novelists and nonfiction writers.

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Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. She is one half of Cassidy Lucas, pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Santa Monica, their first book together, was published by Harper in October 2020. Their second novel, The Last Party, set in Topanga Canyon on the westside of Los Angeles, was published in April 2022.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, now a creative home to over 10,000 writers and named “New York City’s best writing class” by Time Out New York, the L Magazine, and Brooklyn Magazine; and a “Top Alternative to MFA programs” by Poets & Writers. Workshops are offered throughout NYC and online. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in The Observer and The Economist.

Julia has been an editor and writing coach since 2003, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary and commercial fiction. Books that she has worked on include books published by Penguin Random House, Riverhead, Simon and Schuster, Viking, Scribner, Harper Collins, Little A, Houghton Mifflin and more. She has traveled nationwide to give talks about writing, the teaching of writing, crafting creative communities, and publishing. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and her father/gardening partner. She is at work on her fifth novel, a literary genre-bender set in Southern Italy during the WWII liberation.

8-wk ONLINE Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins wk of 10.21.24

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Begins: wk of October 21, 2024
Instructor: Piper Weiss
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up wknight tbd 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $575

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

Piper Weiss is the author of the memoir You All Grow Up and Leave Me, named one of the Best Books of the Year by Marie-Claire, Town and Country and PopSugar, and listed among the top true crime reads by Buzzfeed, CrimeReads and Elle Australia. She had previously served as an editor at the New York Daily News, and as editorial director at HelloGiggles, in addition to writing for print, TV and film. She was a fellow at VCCA and earned her BA in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

10-week ONLINE Master Fiction Writing – begins wk of 10.28.24

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Instructor: Julia Fierro
Dates: begins wk of Oct 28 – *no class the wk of Dec 23 & Dec 30
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up wknight tbd 7-9:30pm ET)
Fee: $1200

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

Our Master 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 or an MFA application, 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 Master Fiction Workshop is designed to give you the feedback you need. Come geek out with your fellow lit nerds and walk away with a renewed sense of purpose.

Online craft lessons and a virtual classroom space are included, as well as a private conference with the instructor.

Two submissions (6,520 words max each time) will be read, critiqued and discussed by the class and will receive detailed line notes and suggested edits from the instructor.

Writers should have both writing and writing class experience and the class is open to both short story writers and novelists.

Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. She is one half of Cassidy Lucas, pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Santa Monica, their first book together, was published by Harper in October 2020. Their second novel, The Last Party, set in Topanga Canyon on the westside of Los Angeles, was published in April 2022.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, now a creative home to over 10,000 writers and named “New York City’s best writing class” by Time Out New York, the L Magazine, and Brooklyn Magazine; and a “Top Alternative to MFA programs” by Poets & Writers. Workshops are offered throughout NYC and online. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in The Observer and The Economist.

Julia has been an editor and writing coach since 2003, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary and commercial fiction. Books that she has worked on include books published by Penguin Random House, Riverhead, Simon and Schuster, Viking, Scribner, Harper Collins, Little A, Houghton Mifflin and more. She has traveled nationwide to give talks about writing, the teaching of writing, crafting creative communities, and publishing. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and her father/gardening partner. She is at work on her fifth novel, a literary genre-bender set in Southern Italy during the WWII liberation.

6-week ONLINE Personal Essay & Memoir I/II – begins wk of 11.4.24

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Instructor: Piper Weiss
Dates: begins wk of Nov 4, 2024
Location: Online (wkly video meet-up wknight tbd 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $525

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.

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Piper Weiss is the author of the memoir You All Grow Up and Leave Me, named one of the Best Books of the Year by Marie-Claire, Town and Country and PopSugar, and listed among the top true crime reads by Buzzfeed, CrimeReads and Elle Australia. She had previously served as an editor at the New York Daily News, and as editorial director at HelloGiggles, in addition to writing for print, TV and film. She was a fellow at VCCA and earned her BA in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

20-wk VIRTUAL Manuscript Generator II (novels, memoirs, story & essay collections) – begins 11.6.24

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Begins: November 6
Instructor: Heather Aimee O’Neill
Location: Meetings via video every other Wednesday 7-9pm EST
Fee: $1650.00

This is a virtual class & video meetings are held every other week.

*This section of Manuscript Generator is intended for writers who have participated in a previous MG class but new writers are welcome to apply.

In this generative workshop, students have the opportunity to hand in chapters (up to 5000 words pages) every other week, and receive feedback from the instructor on these pages. 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 writing sample is not required but recommended for this class.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

APPLY NOW

Heather Aimee O’Neill has worked with hundreds of writers in Sackett Street’s popular Manuscript Intensive Workshop (online and in Brooklyn) and they have continued on to publish with both independent and commercial presses such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, LiveWright, Henry Holt, Park Row, Mariner Books, Lake Union, Doubleday, Flatiron, Little A, Dzanc Books and more. Her most recent collection of poetry, Obliterations, was co-authored with Jessica Piazza and published by Red Hen Press. A recent Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow, her poetry chapbook, Memory Future, won the University of Southern California’s Gold Line Press Award, chosen by judge Carol Muske-Dukes. She is a freelance writer for publications such as Time Out New York, Parents Magazine and Salon.com.

12-wk VIRTUAL Manuscript Generator I (novels, memoirs, story & essay collections) – begins 1.8.25

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Dates: January 8 to March 19
Instructor: Heather Aimee O’Neill
Location: Meetings via video every other Wednesday* 7-9pm EST
Fee: $1050.00

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

Heather Aimee O’Neill has worked with hundreds of writers in Sackett Street’s popular Manuscript Intensive Workshop (online and in Brooklyn) and they have continued on to publish with both independent and commercial presses such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, LiveWright, Henry Holt, Park Row, Mariner Books, Lake Union, Doubleday, Flatiron, Little A, Dzanc Books and more. Her most recent collection of poetry, Obliterations, was co-authored with Jessica Piazza and published by Red Hen Press. A recent Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow, her poetry chapbook, Memory Future, won the University of Southern California’s Gold Line Press Award, chosen by judge Carol Muske-Dukes. She is a freelance writer for publications such as Time Out New York, Parents Magazine and Salon.com.

8-week Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins 9.25.24 – Park Slope

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Instructor: Maddie Crum
Dates: begins Sept 25, meets Wed 7-9pm
Location: Park Slope – 273 Prospect Park West
Fee: $700

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.

8-week Writing Sprints: A Generative Class (all genres) – begins 9.19.24 – Carroll Gardens

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Instructor: M Lin
Dates: begins Sept 19 – Thurs 7-9pm *no class wk of 10.17
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $700

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

Born and raised in Beijing, M Lin is a Chinese writer living in the US. Mandarin is her mother tongue and she writes in English as her second language. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College where she won the Himan Brown Award and a BFA in Film from New York University. Her work is published or forthcoming in Ploughshares, The New York Times, Guernica, swamp pink, Joyland, Epiphany, Fence, Pleiades, and Best Debut Short Stories 2023. She is the winner of 2023 Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, 2023 swamp pink Fiction Prize, 2023 Pen/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, and 2022 Breakout Writers Prize. Her work has been supported by Tin House, Bread Loaf, VCCA, KHN Center for the Arts, Saltonstall Foundation, and more.