8,000+ creative writers since 2002 in NYC & ONLINE
8-week workshops are limited to 9-10 writers (8-wk classes) and 8 writers (6-wk classes), and generative classes (Writing Sprints and Manuscript Generator) have no more than 12-15 writers. All workshops include opportunities to share work in class and receive feedback from both the instructor and classmates. To register, please complete an application and, if required, include a sample of work (1500-2000 words).
Instructor Khaliah Williams
Mondays 7-9pm ET Feb 27-Apr 17
Video meet-up
$450
A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.
Over the course of this workshop, writers will gain skills in fiction and non-fiction writing while engaging in a community of fellow writers of color. During in-class instruction, writers will gain technical skills in character development, language, and style. The combination of an intentional community coupled with thoughtful writing exercises allows participants to immerse themselves in a unique workshop experience.
Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of both fiction and 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 story.
This workshop is open to writers of color working on fiction (short stories and novels) and creative nonfiction (memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism).
Khaliah Williams is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Hawaii Women’s Journal, Frontier Psychiatrist, and Day One, and her non-fiction at Buzzfeed, American Short Fiction and Book Country. She is a current fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and an Instructor and Advisory Board member of Writers in Baltimore School. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is at work on a novel and collection of short stories.
Begins: February 20, 2022
Instructor: Amy Shearn
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Mondays* 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $600
*Class will not meet 4/10
A private conference with the instructor is included.
A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application.
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.
This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism, and students should have writing and writing class experience.
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She has worked as an editor at several publications including JSTOR Daily, Joyland Literary Magazine, and Medium’s owned-and-operated publications Creators Hub, Human Parts, and Forge. Amy’s work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Catapult, and many other publications. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.
Instructor: Laura Warrell
Dates: begins March 28, 2023
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tuesdays 7:30-9:30pm EST)
Fee: $600
A writing sample is required 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 with a regular practice, those 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 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.
Laura Warrell is the author of Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, named a ‘best’ or ‘must-read’ novel by Vanity Fair, People, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Apple Books, The Root, The Millions, Hollywood Reporter, Bustle, Today, Debutiful, and elsewhere. The novel was chosen as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and an Indie Next List Pick. Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm has been long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and short-listed for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. It is also a finalist for the Golden Poppy Book Award through the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Laura, named a “Writer to Watch” by Publishers Weekly, grew up in Kent and Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from the Creative Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and she has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop where she will teach in the online Winter Workshop in 2023. She has taught Creative Writing and Literature through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America Los Angeles, at Writing Workshops Los Angeles, and at the Berklee College of Music and other academic institutions in Los Angeles and Boston.
Begins: April 11, 2023
Instructor: Zakia Henderson Brown
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tuesdays 7-9pm EST)
Fee: $450
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.
Zakia Henderson-Brown is the author of What Kind of Omen Am I, winner of the 2017 Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She was a 2016 Poets House Emerging Poets fellow, and has received additional fellowships and support from the Fine Arts Work Center, Callaloo Journal, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Cave Canem. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Adroit, African American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, the Brooklyn Review, Burner Magazine, Epiphany, Little Patuxent Review, and other publications.
She was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Publishers Weekly Star to Watch program, selected as a finalist for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize by A. Van Jordan, nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2013 by Beloit Poetry Journal, and has been in residence at the T.S. Eliot House, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum. She earned a BA from Wesleyan University, and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from Queens College, where she also served as an adjunct professor. She currently serves as a senior editor at nonprofit publisher The New Press. She is a Brooklyn native and loyalist.
Begins: April 3, 2023
Instructor: Cinelle Barnes
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Mon 6-9pm ET)
Fee: $450
A writing sample is recommended for this class. Please fill out an application.
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.
This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism, and students should have writing and writing class experience.
Cinelle Barnes is a formerly undocumented memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR (Little A, 2018, Booklist starred review) and MALAYA: ESSAYS ON FREEDOM (Little A, 2019), and the editor of the New York Times New & Noteworthy book, A MEASURE OF BELONGING: 21 WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH (Hub City Press, 2020).
Cinelle earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Converse College. Her writing has appeared or been featured in the New York Times, Longreads, Garden & Gun, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed Reader, Literary Hub, Hyphen, and CNN Philippines, among others. Her essay, “Carefree White Girls, Careful Brown Girls”, is anthologized in A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home (Catapult, 2020).
Cinelle’s work has received fellowships and grants from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, VONA, Kundiman, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund, the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant, and Capita. Her debut memoir was listed as a Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 by Bustle and nominated for the 2018 Reading Women Nonfiction Award. She is the 2021 Vulgar Geniuses Nonfiction Honorary Awardee for her writing and social justice work and 2021 writer-in-residence at Pasadena City College, and was a Focus Fellowship artist-in-residence at AIR Serenbe in 2020, a short-term writer-in-residence at City of Asylum in 2019, and the 2018-19 writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, SC, where she and her family live. In 2021, Cinelle was named one of 50 Most Influential by Charleston Business, joining thought leaders in state and local politics, the arts, academia, activism, healthcare, and business.
She is currently at work on a narrative nonfiction book on climate justice, the Philippine water crisis, and Philippine spirituality and folklore.
Instructor: Gabriel Packard
Dates: April 17th & April 24th
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up MONDAYS 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $125
A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a 3-5 page sample of your writing if available.
Instructor: Emily Temple
Dates: April 18, 2023
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Tuesdays 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $600
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 with a regular practice, those 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 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.
Emily Temple is the author of The Lightness (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2020), which Kirkus described as “a dark, glittering fable about the terror of desire,” and which was a Belletrist Book Club pick. Her short fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Electric Literature‘s Recommended Reading, Indiana Review, Fairy Tale Review, No Tokens, and elsewhere. She is the Managing Editor at Literary Hub, and lives with her husband and daughter in Central New York.
Begins: April 19, 2023
Instructor: Heather Aimee O’Neill
Location: Meetings via video every other Wednesday 7-9pm EST
Fee: $1050.00
*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.
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.
Begins: week of May 1, 2023
Instructor: Julia Lynn Rubin
Location: Online (weeknight tbd 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $600
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.
Julia Lynn Rubin received her MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from The New School in 2017. She is the author of three young adult novels, including Primal Animals (St. Martin’s/Macmillan), Trouble Girls (St. Martin’s/Macmillan), and Burro Hills (Diversion). Her short stories have appeared in a variety of publications such as the North American Review (“Like Snowflakes”) and Sierra Nevada Review (“Brooklyn Girls”), and she currently works as a creative content writer for Buzzfeed and The New School’s Marketing & Communication department. She loves film, psychology, and spending as much time as possible at the beach.
Begins: May 1, 2022
Instructor: Amy Shearn
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Mondays 7-9pm ET)
Fee: $600
A private conference with the instructor is included.
A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application.
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.
This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism, and students should have writing and writing class experience.
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She has worked as an editor at several publications including JSTOR Daily, Joyland Literary Magazine, and Medium’s owned-and-operated publications Creators Hub, Human Parts, and Forge. Amy’s work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Catapult, and many other publications. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.
Instructor: Khaliah Williams
Dates: week of May 1, 2023
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up weeknight tbd 7-9pm EST)
Fee: $350
A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info and a brief sample of your writing.
Over the course of this workshop, writers will gain skills in fiction and non-fiction writing while engaging in a community of fellow writers of color. During in-class instruction, writers will gain technical skills in character development, language, and style. The combination of an intentional community coupled with thoughtful writing exercises allows participants to immerse themselves in a unique workshop experience.
Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of both fiction and 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 story.
This workshop is open to writers of color working on fiction (short stories and novels) and creative nonfiction (memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism).
Khaliah Williams is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Hawaii Women’s Journal, Frontier Psychiatrist, and Day One, and her non-fiction at Buzzfeed, American Short Fiction and Book Country. She is a current fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and an Instructor and Advisory Board member of Writers in Baltimore School. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is at work on a novel and collection of short stories.
Begins: week of May 15, 2023
Instructor: Melissa Ximena Golebiowski
Location: Online (weekly video meet-up Mondays 7-9pm EST)
Fee: $550
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.
Melissa Ximena Golebiowski is a Latinx writer and editor based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the former National Assigning Editor for Literary Hub. Originally from NJ but the child of immigrants from different countries respectively, her mixed culture can often be found in her writing. Her work has been featured in Catapult, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and Entropyamong others.
Melissa is currently at work on a short story collection entitled Blanket Girl & Other Storieswhich explores the spiritual & ancestral connection between intimacy and grief and how each manifests in both familial and romantic relationships. The collection will be illustrated by surrealist artist and sculptor, Jim McKenzie.