Teaching

Variety and flexibility drive my approach to teaching writing. This comes in many forms: variety of materials and activities, as well as flexibility in response to my students’ learning styles, needs, and desires. I am committed to bringing students a range of practical tools and creative stimuli.

Upcoming classes:

• Once Upon a Time, a four-week seminar with Atlas Obscura (via Zoom). Beginning Saturday, April 6, 2-3:30 pm ET / 1-2:30 pm CT / 11 am-12:30 pm PT.

• Memory & Imagination, an eight-week online workshop with Orion Magazine (via Zoom). Beginning Tuesday, May 7, 2-4 pm ET / 1-3 pm CT / 11 am-1 pm PT. *Contact workshops@orionmagazine.org to see if any spots remain available. 

• Second Helping: How Food Improves Your Fiction Writing, a one-day seminar with the Newberry Library (via Zoom), Saturday, July 27, 11 am-2 pm CT / 12 pm-3 pm ET / 9 am-12 pm PT. Course description and registration link to come.

Previous courses:

I have developed courses for and taught at the following institutions.

Atlas Obscura

• Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Writing, a four-week seminar.

• Transforming Fairy Tales, a four-week seminar.

The Newberry Library

• Fairy Tale Archetypes & Motifs, a one-day class.

• Contemporary Fairy Tales, a one-day class.

• Second Helping: How Food Improves Fiction, a one-day class.

• Visual Inspiration: Writing with Art, a four-week class.

• All Talk: Dialogue Intensive, a one-day class.

• Beginning Fiction, a six-week class.

StoryStudio Chicago

• Creating Complex Characters, a one-day class.

• Character, Emotion, Suspense, a one-day class.

• Place in Fiction, a six-week class.

• Writing the Senses, a one-day class.

• Wall-to-Wall Writing Prompts, a one-day class.

• Writing Contemporary Fairy Tales, a one-day class.

Write on the Sound Conference

• Powerful Objects: Character, Plot and Resonance, a 75-minute presentation.

Seattle Writes at the Seattle Public Library

• Contemporary Fairy Tales, a free class at the Seattle Public Library.

Literary Arts

• Writing Contemporary Fairy Tales , a one-day class.

Inked Voices

• Research in Fiction, a 75-minute webinar.

• Contemporary Fairy Tales, a 75-minute webinar.

OneRoom

• Writing the Senses: Touch, a 30-minute micro class.

• Writing the Senses: Smell, a 30-minute micro class.

• Writing the Senses: Taste, a 30-minute micro class.

The Living Room Workshops

• Tale: A Two Day Moveable (Writing) Feast, In collaboration with Corinne Manning and Anne Bean.

Richard Hugo House

• Memory & Imagination Online, an eight-week online class.

• Architectural Stories, a two-day class.

• Fiction III, a ten-week class.

• Fiction II Online via Hugo House, an eight-week class.

• Wall-to-Wall Writing Prompts, a one-day class.

• Fiction I at Hugo House – a six-week class.

• Writing about Place, a six-week class.

• Contemporary Fairy Tales, a six-week class.

• Memory and Imagination, a one-day class.

• 1000 Words a Week, a six-week class.

• All Talk: Dialogue Intensive, a one-day class.

• Second Helping: How Food Improves Your Fiction, a one-day class.

• The Chekhovian Story, a six-week class exploring Chekhov and his influence.

• Intro to Fiction: Writing the Short Story, a six-week class covering essential craft elements in short stories, with readings, discussion, and exercises.

• Hugo at the Henry: The Senses in Reading and Writing, a one-day Hugo House class co-presented with the Henry Art Gallery, drawing on the exhibit Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E.

• The Fiction Workshop, a six-week class

• Visual Inspiration, a six-week class co-presented with the Henry Art Gallery. Fiction written in the summer 2012 class, beautifully laid out by the Henry here; fiction and poetry written in the winter 2013 class beautifully laid out here.

• Found Stories, a one-day class.

• Looking & Seeing: Generating Prose with Paintings, a one-day class.

University of Washington

• Beginning Short Story Writing

• Expository Writing

Pace University

• Critical Reading & Composition for speakers of English as a second language

• Academic Writing, a developmental class for speakers of English as a second language

Community English Program at Teachers College, Columbia University

• Advanced English as a Second Language

Xincon Technology School

• International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) preparation