Teaching

Westport Writer’s Workshop:

In his book on writing, From Where You Dream, Robert Olin Butler advises forcing yourself to become a morning person. “If you arrange your life so that you can spend two hours writing–or an hour, given the exigencies of some working lives, but ideally two hours–you make that time sacrosanct at the beginning of the day.” While it might not be possible to do every day, or for two hours at a time, this class is about giving yourself an hour at the beginning of each week in which to enter the dream world of writing. We’ll start with reading a poem and a prompt each week, but students are invited to write whatever is taking their interest. We’ll end each week by coming together to hear from anyone who wants to share a few sentences from that morning’s work. But, most of all, the class will provide accountability, consistency, and community in the challenge we all face in arranging life so that we can write.

WHERE: Online via ZOOM
TIME: 7 Mondays, 6am to 7am
DATES: August 30, September 13, 20, 27, October 4, 11, 18

Writing for Teens – IN PERSON!

In his famous Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke told the aspiring poet who asked him for advice to “Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.”

In this workshop, students will read and write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and have the opportunity to workshop and revise at least one piece in each genre. We’ll do some generative writing exercises each day and discuss some published work. The focus of the class is on flexibility and freedom to take risks, experiment, and, on finding time, space, and community to witness the impulse to write.

WHERE: In person – in our new offices in Westport!
25 Sylvan Road North, Suite J, Westport, CT
TIME: 3 days — 1pm to 4pm
DATES: Monday thru Wednesday — August 16, 17, 18

Writing Family – IN PERSON!

One of the hardest and most fraught things about writing family–even in fiction–is the balance between honesty and the impulse to protect our families. In this one-day workshop we’ll do a mix of writing from prompts, studying work about family from poets, novelists, essayists and memoirists, and give feedback on the in-class writing we do. We’ll read writers like David Sedaris, Samantha Irby, Lilly Dancyger, William Matthews, Sharon Olds, Alexander Chee, Maggie O’Farrell and Kevin Wilson.

WHERE: In person – in our new offices in Westport!
​​​​​​​25 Sylvan Road North, Suite J, Westport, CT
TIME: 10am to 1pm
DATE: Saturday, October 2nd

Everyday Objects – IN PERSON!

As writers, it’s easy to get lost in the cerebral or emotional register of our stories. This one-day workshop will provide a variety of ways of using objects to ground and organize writing across genres. We’ll read several poems as well as excerpts from Dawn Raffel’s memoir The Secret Life of Objects and some of the books in the “Object Lessons” series and do students will have the chance to get feedback on generative exercises
from the session.

WHERE: In person – in our new offices in Westport!
​​​​​​​25 Sylvan Road North, Suite J, Westport, CT
TIME: 10am to 1pm
DATE: Saturday, October 30th

Private Tutoring:

Private tutoring for high school students including experience with college essay coaching and preparation for SAT verbal, AP Language & Composition, and AP Literature & Composition exams

Contact with questions about scheduling and rates: