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Delve Readers Seminar: Vanity Fair

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Vanity Fair (“A Novel without a Hero”), by William Makepeace Thackeray (1848), belongs on the same shelf with other towering novels of the Victorian age: Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, and The Way We Live Now. Its protagonist, Becky Sharp, is one of the most tantalizing, bewitching, infuriating, charming, scheming, and amoral characters in all of literature, and as we watch Becky negotiate poverty, war, marriage, and scandal, the reader constantly wonders: do I like her? Should I like her? Is she evil, or just practical? And what won’t she do to survive? In this five-week Delve, we will explore Thackeray’s brittle, cynical, and witty masterpiece of social manners, and see how the pressures of class, money, and Empire shape the lives of ordinary people…

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$210

Cultivating a Sustainable Writing Practice

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Cultivating a Sustainable Writing Practice Instructor: Alissa Hattman This workshop is offered via Zoom PST Register here Class Meetings: 1 Saturday, Jan. 7th; 1-4pm $15 – $75 sliding scale *6 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized Our practice—how we labor as writers—is highly personal. When we create a writing habit, it helps to consider our individual creative processes, life priorities, writing goals, and all the ways that we get in the way of our own writing. How we labor is also bound up in cultural notions of productivity and success that can often kill the creative drive. It can be hard to consistently carve out time in order to cultivate the type of patient, inner stillness required to write, but it is possible. Necessary,…

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$15 – $75

Six Month Short Story Intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of six months. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place, and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at…

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$1,100

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…

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$80 – $200

Mastering the Short Story

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this intensive workshop, students will write and revise their short stories focusing on craft elements such as characters, voice, subtext, and story structure. At the end of the six weeks, students will have created a dossier of up to 20 pages of new work and received detailed feedback from the instructor. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if…

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$285

Winter Writing: A Poetry Prompt Workshop w Matthew Dickman | Jan 15 – Mar 5 | Online FULL — WAITLIST ONLY

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Winter is a time for going indoors, breaking out the extra blankets, and hibernating. But it can also be a time of thoughtfulness, of preparing one for the renewal of Spring to come. In this spirit Winter Writing will be a generative poetry class. A class of first drafts. Over eight weeks we will write poems from a diverse list of prompts, suggestions, and examples from poets such as Morgan Parker, Dorianne Laux, Major Jackson, Sharon Olds, Richie Hoffman and others. Each week we will bring in our first draft to share, discuss, and celebrate. Come write with us! Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Matthew DickmanTime: Sundays, Jan 15 - Mar 5, 1-3pm Pacific TimeTotal Fee: Discounted Early Registration is due seven (7) days…

Continue readingWinter Writing: A Poetry Prompt Workshop w Matthew Dickman | Jan 15 – Mar 5 | Online FULL — WAITLIST ONLY
$350 – $379

Delve Readers Seminar: The Feminine Gothic: Victorian and American Horror

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Novels of ghosts and haunted landscapes can open the door to discussions of sociology and repression, trauma, and the cathartic function of horror. In this seminar, we will examine themes of possession, repression, haunting, and the mad woman in the attic in four Victorian and American horror novels from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel. In-Person Seminar Note: This seminar meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington.Please see our complete Covid-19 policy here. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access…

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$245

So, You Wanna Be A Writer w Wayne Gregory | Jan 17 – Feb 14 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ~ E. L. Doctorow You have a thousand stories inside your head. You dabble on the page but rarely if ever finish anything, much less share with others. “Is my work good enough?” you wonder.  “Do I have something original and interesting to say? What makes me think I can be a writer?”  The biggest obstacle for emerging writers is not lack of time nor lack of skill nor lack of things to write about. It’s a lack of self-confidence. This workshop is designed for those who want to be writers but are not sure they can be. …

Continue readingSo, You Wanna Be A Writer w Wayne Gregory | Jan 17 – Feb 14 | Online
$219 – $248

A Writer’s Toolkit: Plot and Structure w Wayne Gregory | Jan 19 – Feb 16 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

It has to come to life! Bit by bit, putting it together Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art --- Stephen Sondheim This class is about helping the emerging writer take her pile of random chapters, character sketches, fragments, scenes, ramblings, and moments of literary brilliance, into something of a coherent and emotionally resonant story. During this class we will explore how a writer can look within their narrative to identify the key scenes, to understand the most critical trajectory for the character(s) from beginning to end, and to build the necessary narrative to connect those key scenes and move the journey of the characters forward. Finally, each student will develop their own revision practice and understand better what their story…

Continue readingA Writer’s Toolkit: Plot and Structure w Wayne Gregory | Jan 19 – Feb 16 | Online
$219 – $248

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…

Continue readingPushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms
$80 – $200
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