Let's Write Essays, Talk About Essays, Talk About Writing--
Starts Soon! Still room...
Hey there!
I’m pretty sure you have things to talk about, and to write about. There are so many ways to get started and/or keep going. Reading is crucial. Discussion is helpful. Keeping it real, keeping it fun is pure gold, because writing is a long-term labor of love.
Workshop has often been my happy place, sharing work with amazing writers even before they gained the recognition of their defining career moves, their novels, memoirs, stories, essays…I’ve been fortunate, we’ve all been fortunate, to work together, inspiring and supporting the writing process. I’m here for it.
Some thoughts, ideas or sources of inspiration lend themselves toward either long or short fiction, novels and stories. I love both forms, absolutely!
Other material—or even the same material—may be suited to a more compressed piece, finding another way to walk a line between the exterior world and the world of ideas, using all the tools and techniques of fiction coupled with adhering to a personal and factual truth, insights, opinions…The impulse to write, to capture something, may swim to the surface, arriving from the murky world of lived experiences translated through the human condition, visions, chemistry, longing, loss, love, comedy, tragedy, forgetfulness and remembering and all the rest of what it means to be human, the full package. This is where the flexible, cool, directly communicative art of writing personal essays steps in.
I’m launching two versions of six-week essay writing workshops, starting this Sunday 2/18. One is online, and the other is in person.
I’m also launching a reading and discussion group, to talk about published essays by other authors, on Thursday evenings (PST). This one is a lower cost, and the commitment is to reading approximately three essays a week, then joining to share thoughts, insights, opinions. I find this group to be really energetic, inspirational and helpful in developing a sense of what an essay can do, and how craft works, cultivating a personal aesthetic among other things.
All three are here, and if you click on them individually, the times and details should be visible…but if not, ask! :)
My idea was to have a variation to suit individual needs—in-person, for those in the Portland area, and online, for anyone further away, and then a reading group at an economical rate for anyone looking to get back in the swing or continuing the conversation…
I’ve got a few more spots in each, and I’d love to fill them!
Interested?
Let me know if you need a payment plan or a discount. We’re all pulling it together all the time, I know.
Online Version: Essay Workshop | monicadrake
With all best wishes,
M
I won’t be able to attend this round but am hoping for a future one!
I may have to take it a second time.
As Matt knows I need to be told everything twice at least.