RESHELVE ME
winter/spring 2024 workshops & classes
teaching update 2/22/24
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i've embarked on a new partnership with the radical Threshold Academy. started in 2019 by poet & pedagogue Zoe Tuck, Threshold offers literature and creative writing classes outside of academia. In Zoe's own words: "I believe that anyone can learn to teach, that we are best motivated by our innate curiosity, and that the structures of formal academia are soul-sucking and extractive. I also believe that we are stronger together, so consider yourself invited!"
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i agree 1000%, and i'm excited to be bringing my classes home to Threshold. most of the classes listed here now and in the future will have Threshold logos and registration links attached. classes not taught through Threshold (like my upcoming Corporeal Writing workshop on Relational Writing) will be indicated as such. I may still occasionally offer seminar series through this page, but we'll just have to see.
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if you have any questions about classes, reach out!
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xo C
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Writing With: A Relational Writing Workshop
march 16, 2024
Saturday, 3/16/24
On Zoom | 1PM—4PM PST
cost: $50-$250 siding scale
(register & pay at Corporeal Writing)
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Description
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The reader, the writer—both are only human and trying to navigate grief, coincidences, and trying to live in the present. This workshop will explore strategies for writing with instead of about. To do this, we’ll do some thinking and writing about how the stories you’ve read have changed you in ways you weren’t expecting. We'll also ask: how has life’s events, its ups and downs, altered the way you look at yourself, the world, and people around you? By examining our own personal growth through art, we'll ask how we might bring this self-awareness to the stories we write. Our goal is not to tell “good” stories about “good” or “bad” characters, but to use our own experiences in a changeable world to imagine a relationship with a reader (and a subject) that is grounded in authentic desire to explore this sensuous, challenging project of relating. This class is for humans before it's for writers, and there is no prior writing or workshop experience required. The class won’t be limited by genre—i.e. fiction or nonfiction. Examples and prompts will pull from prose and poetry, and participants can write in any form they wish. Participants will move from a state of feeling like they may be lacking in experience, skill, or technique, to a place where they understand that they have everything they need right now to tell the stories they need to tell by drawing on their embodied, relational wisdom.
Starting Over | march - may 2024
Wednesdays, 3/20 - 5/22
On Zoom | 4-6pm PST
cost: $300-450 siding scale
(register and pay at Threshold Academy)
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Description
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Do you feel when you’re writing that your sentences control you?
Are you haunted by styles and sensibilities that show up in your prose without realizing it?
When you read your own work, does it sound like anyone could have written it?
Samuel R Delany writes that “content is the illusion myriad stylistic factors create when viewed at a certain distance.” Most of us have been writing in one form or another since grade school, following tired formulas and classic examples, without much attention to the patterns, idiosyncrasies, and quirks that make our voice unique. And if you haven’t had a chance to slow down, then there's a good chance that the voice you write into feels scratchy and ill-fitting, like a stretched-out sweater. This style intensive is an opportunity to start over. By examining the smallest units of prose—words, sentences, paragraphs, punctuation—you’ll be given the time, feedback, and a community of writers in which to explore, play, explode, and renew your style. We’ll spend time with writers known not just for their ‘clean’ style, but for their unmistakable sentences and paragraphs that couldn’t have been written by anyone else. Don’t think you have a style? This is the perfect opportunity to try on new voices, new techniques, and get to know yourself better as a writer. Students will learn from examples, from sharing their work in a supportive community, and by doing.
Short Story Multiverse | march - june 2024
March 24 - June 30 (see dates below)
4-6 pm PST on Zoom
cost: $400 - $550 (sliding scale)
(register & pay at Threshold Academy)
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Description
Short stories present the writer with the opportunity for many new beginnings throughout time, space, genre, character and place. But how to start again and again without becoming lost or overwhelmed? Are there strategies and tools to keep motivated over the years it takes to write, revise, rewrite, and make big shifts to your original framework? How does one find a framework in the first place, for a single story or multiple? This class will present an opportunity to examine the different ways stories can collide and disperse to build toward something bigger than the sum of their parts. Over the course of four months you’ll read 3 whole collections of your choosing, share up to 40 pages with the group for feedback, and join with a small cohort of other writers equally engaged in trying to glimpse the scale of their own creative universe, how it coheres, and where it ventures into new places. Meetings will be a mix of group conversation, writing, and workshop, and one-on-one meetings with me, as well as occasional Zoom Q&As with writers, editors, and artists to provide different frameworks for thinking about your work in the world. The class will take place online, and will culminate in an optional Zoom reading open to the public in June 2024.
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Who this class is for: You don’t need to be seeking publication with a traditional publisher—or seeking publication at all—in order to reap the benefits of this class. While I draw on my experience as an editor, writer, bookseller, and former publicist to demystify the publishing world for writers who want to know more, as a teacher I rely on mindfulness and reflection, somatic exercises, metaphor work, and meditations in combination with writing prompts and discussions. I believe this approach has something for everyone, whether you are looking to polish a manuscript of short stories, map out a memoir in essays, or are interested in building a sustained practice of writing and creation as part of a holistic life. One-on-one meetings are where we can can tailor toward your specific goals. If you’re still not sure if this is right for you, please reach out. I’m always offering new classes both online and in-person, and there may be something else coming up that might better suit your wants and needs.
Group Meetings (all held from 4-6pm PST)
March 24
April 7, 21
May 5, 19
June 2, 23
June 30 (Zoom reading)
One-on-one meetings individually scheduled
Deposits, Sliding Scale & Payment Info​
Unless otherwise noted, a $100 deposit is required to hold your space.
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Deposits are not refundable, but I will apply them to a future class if you can't attend the series you signed up for.
In other words, be sure you're ready to do this before paying me $$$.
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If a class lists the cost as a range (i.e. $400-600), then I trust you to be able to select the payment level that best suits your current financial situation.
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Sometimes I'm able to offer a spot in a class free of charge. I will list below the class title if one of these spots is available. These spots are reserved for those who can't afford to pay but who are at a stage in their writing/lives where they believe they would benefit from some instruction. Just tell me a little about yourself, how you learned about the class, and I'll let you know if the spot is available or add you to a waitlist.