Creative Writing Classes in Washington, DC

Looking for a one-stop shop to get your work closely read before submitting? This one-day workshop will be dedicated to generating a couple new poems, critiquing a few older poems, and creating a list of literary journals and contest to submit work. Please submit three poems to [email protected] for the workshop leader to review prior to the...

Here's an opportunity either to improve your villanelle skills or to write your first one. With the help of a widely published author of villanelles and sonnets, participants will read several classic and contemporary examples to see why they work, and write one or more of their own.  Then, writers will see how a new poem can be improved by revision. (Feel...

In this six week intensive workshop, participants will write a poetry chapbook of up to 15 pages, and then make a physical book!  In the first four meetings participants will explore how groups of poems work together to create a focused, whole experience. The sessions will include reading model chapbooks and considering various strategies of...

Getting a first draft down on paper is just the first step. The revision process is where most of the work, magic, and satisfaction of writing poetry happens. In this class, participants will learn how to open up their early drafts to discover what the poem really wants to talk about. A variety of in-class exercises will help writers find the heart...

You’re sick of sitting alone in your room. You’ve reached a certain level of mastery with your fiction writing, but you want some feedback you can trust, and moreover, you want to see what other good writers are doing with their fiction.  This workshop will gather together people of like minds, working hard and willing to be supportive. Do...

How poets handle syntax—the arrangement of words in a sentence—is crucial to everything from establishing the voice of a poem to evoking a particular response from the reader.  In this workshop, participants will take a close look at how sentences are put together and how changing the structure can send a poem off in a new direction. Writers...

Why write a memoir? What is the truth? What makes a memoir engaging to read? These are the questions participants will explore during this one-day immersion in the dilemmas that plague the memoirist. Through conversation and writing exercises, participants will come away with greater clarity of mind and be inspired to move onward with their life stories...

Flash fiction (stories told in 1,000 words or less) is an exciting genre attracting increasing interest in the publishing world. This two-hour course will provide an introduction to the genre, including model examples of flash, techniques of flash, and tips for writing your own. Participants will discuss where to read excellent flash, write multiple...

Works of fiction are often identified as either literary or genre, but this class will consider them both/and. Writers will identify what makes fiction "genre" or "literary," and look at contemporary short stories that combine aspects of science fiction with a literary aim. Participants will focus on an example and an aspect of craft each week. By...

In this eight week workshop, intermediate and advanced poets will concentrate on reading, writing, and critiquing poetry. Each class session will include a brief discussion of selected contemporary poems, an in-class writing prompt, and workshopping participants' poems. Specific exercises will be given to free the imagination, and quiet the inner censor....

Here's an opportunity either to improve your sonnet skills or to write your first one. With the help of a widely published author of sonnets and villanelles, participants will read several classic and contemporary examples and then write one or more of their own. Then, writers will see how a new poem can be improved by revision. (Feel free also to...

Here’s an opportunity to improve your ear for meter, and to fine-tune your understanding of how meter works in poetry. Have you ever wondered how scanning the lines of your first draft can make for a better poem? Do you know why listening for the natural rhythms of speech can strengthen your writing? With the help of a widely published author of...