Life writing—literature that shares real-life experience—is more than recording what happened: it’s an act of meaning-making, a way of understanding who you are and how you became yourself. In this course, you’ll be invited into a process of exploration and discovery as you learn how to shape personal experience into compelling narrative. Drawing from memoir, autobiography, autofiction, personal essay, and boundary-crossing hybrid forms, you’ll explore how memory, imagination, truth, and voice intertwine to create work that feels both intimate and artful.

Together, we’ll examine the essential craft questions at the heart of life writing: how to find a narrative voice that feels rooted and alive; how to balance authenticity with shaping and structure; how to move fluidly across time; how to choose detail with intention; and how to give your work a form that serves both the story and the reader. Along the way, you’ll learn how to translate lived experience into writing that resonates beyond the self.

We’ll also engage openly with the emotional and ethical terrain of life writing—the vulnerability of being seen on the page, the complexity of contested or imperfect memory, and the shift from writing purely for yourself to writing with an audience in mind. Your voice and your story will be met with care, respect, and thoughtful attention.

Each week, you’ll receive an original on-demand video or audio lecture, curated readings, discussion prompts, and a generative writing assignment. You’ll have opportunities to share your work, practice feedback and revision, and receive precise, insightful instructor feedback to help you deepen and strengthen your writing.

We will read and discuss the work and reflections of life writers including Mary Karr, Lemn Sissay, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Olivia Laing, Ocean Vuong, Melissa Febos, Olivia Sudjic, Polly Atkin, Bernardine Evaristo, Maggie Nelson, Simon Armitage, Maggie O’Farrell, and Robert MacFarlane. Targeted writing assignments will invite you to try a range of life-writing approaches, generate new material, and expand your craft.

You’ll receive feedback from me on up to 1,000 words in Weeks 1–9, as well as a full chapter or equivalent (up to 3,000 words) in Week 10. By the end of the course, you’ll leave with not only a clearer understanding of life writing’s many forms and possibilities, but also a stronger sense of your own voice, purpose, and direction—along with a wealth of new work that brings your lived experience into sharper, more intentional focus on the page.

Who This Course is For

This course is designed for writers with some experience keen to explore the possibilities of life writing or build on work in progress.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

• Understand what makes a life writing voice feel engaging and authentic for the reader.
• Understand how life writing and fiction are related, and what kind of truth matters to readers.
• Know how to use showing and telling, honing in and ‘zooming out’ to shape your writing.
• Develop strategies for handling your internal censor and dealing with real and imagined criticism.
• Understand the variety of life writing forms and structures available to you, and how to choose a container that suits your work.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will write:

• Up to 9,000 words of new life writing material.
• An initial chapter or equivalent (up to 3000 words).
• A title, description and draft structure outline for your life writing project.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1 – Writing as research: life writing methods

In week 1 we’ll consider our own life writing aims, discuss life writing research, and explore some different ways in which writing itself can function as research. In our assignment, we’ll use sensory description as a way in to writing about childhood, and harness the generative power of lists. 

Week 2 – Narrative voice

We’ll explore our voices as writers: how they’ve been formed and how we can develop and strengthen them. We’ll listen to, read and write anecdotes and true stories, focusing on the relationship between the spoken and written voice, and the difference having an audience makes.

Week 3 – Realness and authenticity

What do truth and authenticity mean in life writing, and why do they matter? Though reading and discussion we’ll think about the interplay between experience and imagination and learn what kind of truths might matter most to readers. Our epistolary assignment – a letter to someone who will never read it – will continue this exploration of truth and disclosure.

Week 4 – Exposure

How much of our (and others’) lives should we share? In week 4 we’ll consider how we can navigate our internal censors and share in ways that feel constructive. In our writing assignment, we’ll experiment with first and third-person approaches to awkward or difficult subject-matter.

Week 5 – Zooming in and Zooming Out

In week 4 we’ll learn how to judge when to zoom in and use precise, specific detail, and when we should use more of a ‘wide angle’ lens to communicate information. In our writing, we’ll experiment with showing and telling, close-up and summary, to communicate shifts in pace and time.

Week 6 – Form, structure and time

Life writing involves many choices: what to include and leave out, how to shape, form and signpost the material so that it works for the reader. In week 6 we’ll consider different models and options for effective life writing ‘containers’ and learn how to choose an appropriate form and structure for our work. We’ll create draft titles, descriptions and structure outlines for our own life writing projects.

Week 7 – Multiple selves

How can we write convincingly about both past and present selves, or different ‘selves’ within our current lives? In week 7 we’ll discuss the ways writers convincingly portray different selves and the development of selves through time. We’ll write in the voice of a younger self, and then combine their perspective with our own present-day voice.

Week 8 – Character portrayal in life writing

How can we construct and convey characters effectively when they’re rooted in real-life human beings? In week 8 we will consider the complexities of representing real-life others in our writing, and the ways in which we can bring characters to life for our readers. We’ll learn how to strengthen and improve character portrayal through imaginative writing activities.

Week 9 – Writing about place

Place can function in a similar way to character, revealing the topography and environment that’s formed the writer. Through reading, discussion and image-inspired writing, we’ll think about what makes description and evocation of place effective in life writing.

Week 10 – Beginnings: venturing forth

In week 10 we’ll circle back to think about openings and beginnings in life writing. We will share and celebrate our completed first chapter drafts (or equivalent) and consider the different paths through which life writing can find its audience.

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The post Life Writing: Explore Your Lived Experience in Prose appeared first on Writers.com.

During our time together, you will explore your personal “flood subjects”—the obsessions and resonant sources that exist deep inside you and which fuel you to write, practice opening your eyes and other senses to the world around you, probe your fears and dreams, and find poetry in the language that surrounds you every day. Our goal will not simply be to create more “publishable” poems (though that will likely follow as well), but to write more poems that matter: poems charged with energy, urgency, and power, and perhaps some of what the poet Linda Gregg referred to as “luminosity.”

Each week, I will provide a written introduction to the week’s theme, links to brief readings that will provide inspiration for your own work, a discussion question for you to engage with to connect with your classmates and deepen your engagement with the course topics, and a thoughtfully-designed writing prompt for you to generate a new poem. You will also receive nuanced and encouraging feedback on each of your poems from me as well as your workshop group, and write feedback for your classmates as well.

At the end of this course, you will come away with six new poems of your own, a more nuanced understanding of your poetic subjects, and practice seeing the world with the eyes of a poet.

Note: There will be no new materials or assignments during the week of December 24–30, 2025. Because of this break, the 6-week course will take place over a 7-week span.

Who This Course is For

Open to poets of all experience levels, this course welcomes beginners who wish to see the world through the eyes of a poet and experienced writers looking to reconnect with the deeper reasons behind their work.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Deepen awareness and understanding of your own poetic subjects.
• Become a “noticer” and awaken your senses to the world around you.
• Practice more effectively delivering the essence of your poems through language.
• Refine your use of image.
• Overcome creative blocks by tapping into new subject matter.

Writing Goals

• You will generate six new poems.
• You will also come away with feedback on these new poems that you can use to revise them as well as inform your future writing.

Weekly Syllabus

The post Find Your Poetic Wellspring: Writing the Poems that Matter appeared first on Writers.com.

In this course, you’ll receive one prompt daily. Each prompt is designed to help you identify stories that may be hiding somewhere within you, deep in the body or in a secret corner of the brain. Each prompt will be results-driven and tied to a particular aspect of writing and life.

Writing a story in 100 to 800 words might sound relatively simple, but it takes a lot of practice to craft a personal narrative that can take a reader through an experience, one that vibrates like a flash of lightning and stays with them after they reach the end. You will learn how to follow through on core ideas and build immersive scenes in and around them. You’ll work with imagery, sensory details, and multi-functioning prose, and play with word count and unconventional structures. You’ll also have access to reading material for guidance, edification, and inspiration.

Each week, you have the option of submitting one of your flash pieces for instructor feedback. You will also have the option to post some of your work, and trade comments with your course mates. By the end of 30 days, you’ll have a whole collection of micro-writing—one piece for each prompt, seeds of stories planted in fertile soil ready for you to cultivate—and the satisfaction of looking at what you’ve generated and seeing where the work wants to take you.

Who This course is For

This is for writers of all levels interested in creative nonfiction. It’s great for cultivating a writing practice, getting into the flow of writing a little bit (or as much as you can) every day for a month. Mostly, you just have to have a desire to create.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Establish and cultivate a writing practice that challenges you to get going and keep going.
• See what happens when you venture out of your comfort zone and try different approaches to the work on different days.
• Make space for art and creativity in difficult times.
• Focus on the details, the language, the powers of observation.
• Take memories and abstract ideas and develop them into an entire super-short story with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Discover possibilities that will surprise you.

Writing Goals

• Write 30 flash essays (100 – 800 words each) to be revised, expanded, condensed, folded into each other or used for a another project, or kept as a journal—documentation of one month in your writing life.
• Optional: receive and offer feedback from peers and/or the instructor.

Course Structure

The goal is to write one short piece every day for thirty days! Each day, you’ll receive a new prompt designed to inspire fresh work and stretch your creative boundaries. Each week, you can choose one piece to receive detailed feedback from me, and you’re invited to share your work in our online classroom forum to connect with your fellow writers.

Note: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no prompts on Thursday and Friday, November 27th & 28th. We’ll make these two days up by extending the course into the first two days of December. 

The post 30 Super-Short True Stories in 30 Days appeared first on Writers.com.

Good research will enrich any story you tell, no matter which genre or time period you’re writing in. It deepens character by helping you understand people’s very different lived experiences and perspectives, and it provides you with the right details to bring your story to life in ways that feel immersive and true.

Throughout this course, you’ll learn research tips, tricks, and habits of mind straight from an academic research librarian turned published author to help you research your novel or fiction piece. You’ll get strategies for integrating your research into your story, and you’ll share your writing for feedback each week to ensure that the two elements—narrative and knowledge—flow together as smoothly, and powerfully, as possible.

Each week, you’ll tackle a specific aspect of the research process—from formulating the right questions to finding reliable sources to seamlessly integrating research into your story. Through a combination of guided lessons, search exercises, and writing prompts, you’ll gain practical research skills and apply them directly to your work-in-progress.

Weekly submissions provide opportunities for you to draft your research into your narrative and get helpful notes from me for future revision. You’ll walk away with a toolkit of research strategies, and newly written scenes that bring your story to life with well-integrated details.

Research can shape every aspect of your fiction—from setting to character to historical accuracy. Whether you’re diving into historical records, interviewing experts, or simply figuring out how to make your fiction feel more real, this course will help you strike the perfect balance between storytelling and fact.

Who This Course is For

Any writer working on a piece of fiction—whether you have a finished rough draft or are still in the drafting stage.

What Will You Get Out of It?

• Guidance in directing and narrowing your research focus in order to suit your project needs
• Tips for searching effectively for materials and information (sometimes in unexpected places)
• Strategies for working research into the story, with readings, lessons, and writing exercises on world-building and exposition
• Resources beyond the written word: ideas about who to reach out to, and what to ask
• Advice on balancing research and writing: when to stop, and when to possibly start again

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

• Build a personalized research process that supports your specific fiction project.
• Learn best practices for interviewing authorities on a subject or in a field.
• Learn effective strategies for finding, organizing, and evaluating a wide range of sources.
• Understand how research can inform and enrich character development, setting, and plot.
• Develop techniques for seamlessly integrating researched material into your narrative.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will:

• Draft new scenes or revise existing ones using research-driven detail to deepen realism and voice.
• Practice embedding research naturally into narrative through weekly prompts and feedback.
• Receive weekly feedback to refine how research and storytelling are working together on the page.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet on Zoom weekly on Fridays at 3 PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

The post Truth Be Told: Research and Write Your Novel or Short Story appeared first on Writers.com.

In this asynchronous workshop, we will aim to write every day. We’ll spread out the writing over six weeks, with six weekly lessons that include five prompts each. We will read prose poems, essays, and excerpts from memoirs. Some of the authors we’ll read include Eudora Welty, Jo Ann Beard, Jamaica Kincaid, Paul Auster, Anne Carson, Lydia Davis, Dorothy Allison, and Joe Brainard.

I’ll offer in-depth feedback on one of your pieces per week, plus ongoing reflections and encouragement on your writing throughout the week. I also encourage you to give and receive peer feedback on your daily submissions. Additionally, at the end of the course, you’ll have the option to submit a few polished vignettes for additional feedback and guidance. With a dynamic mix of readings, prompts, and community support, this workshop is sure to spark new creative connections and deepen your writing practice!

Who This Course is For

This course is for writers looking to jumpstart or reinvigorate their creative practice through daily writing, short exercises, and peer engagement. Whether you’re interested in generating new material for longer essays, crafting standalone flash memoir pieces, or simply reconnecting with your writing voice, this class provides structure, inspiration, and community. Ideal for both beginners and experienced writers, this workshop offers a low-pressure yet productive environment to explore personal storytelling.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn to:

• Identify how other writers have approached flash memoir.
• Experiment with strategies for approaching your own biographical material, and form new connections between disparate experiences.
• Experience and contribute to a rich and supportive community of writers who are finding meaning through reading, writing, and discussion.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Produce short life-inspired vignettes in response to five writing exercises per week, which can be polished into standalone pieces of flash memoir or form the seeds of longer pieces, if you like.
• Gain practice in offering critiques to peers.
• Have the option of producing a short final portfolio of vignettes for instructor feedback.

Course Setup

• Every Monday for six weeks, you’ll receive a lesson that includes tips about craft elements and the writing process, short readings to inspire you, and five writing prompts. Over the course of the week, you’ll select the prompts you wish to respond to and post your work to me and your fellow classmates. Posting is encouraged, but not required.
• If you’d like me to comment on one of your pieces each week, please plan to post your work at least three times a week, and leave feedback on at least one of your classmate’s posts. 
• At the end of the course, you’ll have the option to send me up to three polished vignette drafts to receive more detailed feedback and direction.

The post Thirty Days of Flash Memoir  appeared first on Writers.com.

Through structured weekly lessons and thought-provoking prompts, we’ll explore diverse approaches to essay writing. You’ll reflect on life experiences to draw out both individual meaning and universal resonance, revisit pivotal moments in your history and broaden your perspective through focused research, and learn to convey your unique view and experience of life. With guidance and encouragement throughout, you’ll learn how to uncover and shape meaningful narratives, and generate a breadth of new material.

For inspiration, we’ll read and discuss two essays each week—one on craft and one as an example to learn from—by writers like Phillip Lopate, Brit Bennett, Annie Dillard, and Krys Malcolm Belc. Writing exercises will help you generate ideas and refine your drafts. I’ll provide detailed feedback, and you’ll exchange your writing with classmates to help strengthen your work. By the end of the course, you’ll not only have six new essays, but also a toolkit of strategies to continue developing and revising them.

Who This Course is For

This course is for anyone who would like to write six new essays! Whether you’re a beginner looking for tips on how to get started, or a seasoned writer in search of a fresh approach, this class will offer you the motivation, accountability, and guidance you need to generate lots of compelling new material.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Identify and develop story material using a range of approaches
• Reflect upon your own experiences and preoccupations to uncover compelling questions
• Develop observational skills, invoking all the senses
• Enliven your scene narration, to bring a memory to life
• Improve and diversify your research skills
• Analyze published essays by authors such as Phillip Lopate, Brit Bennett, Annie Dillard and Krys Malcolm Belc, and mine them for inspiration and craft tips

Writing Goals

• Write six new one-thousand-word essays
• Complete a series of custom-designed writing exercises
• Read and respond to your classmates’ work to produce insightful, constructive feedback
• Process feedback from your classmates and your instructor
• Discuss strategies for developing material and revising drafts

Weekly Syllabus

The post Roads to Revelation: Write 6 Essays in 6 Weeks appeared first on Writers.com.

Each week you will write one mini-memoir, between 250–750 words. Each week, you’ll submit your writing for constructive feedback from both me and your peers, while offering supportive critiques to four or five classmates in return. We’ll also focus on how experimenting with language, structure, and imagery can help develop your memoir. To inspire and study technique, I will provide some short examples from writers such as Jane Wodening, Fielding Dawson, Jayne Ann Phillips, Grace Paley, Maggie Nelson and others.

Discussions and critiques will take place in a text-based format on the course website, with one optional Zoom meetup to connect in real time. This course is designed for experienced writers who feel confident in their creative process and would like to refine their work. Supportive, detailed feedback will focus on each draft’s potential, offering commentary and editing suggestions to help you revise and improve your writing.

Who This Course is For

This course is for experienced writers who want to explore memoir through flash and poetic prose. It’s an ideal course for those looking to learn more about poetry in prose while exploring the possibilities in one’s own life story through supportive feedback and thoughtful revision.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Learn how to be more particular with your writing.
• Use writing to understand your life story.
• Gain more confidence with your literary writing skills.
• Become more aware of how readers interpret your writing.
• Become more attentive to style, form, and rhythm in sentences and/or lines.

Writing Goals

• Write a series of eight vignettes or prose poems while advancing a narrative.
• Gain clear direction on what you want to do next with your memoir project. 

Weekly Syllabus

Pre-Course Optional Pre-Writing Assignment:

Consider preparing for the class by making a list of turning points in your life, moments that changed the direction of your life, even in minor ways. Imagine a photograph for each turning point and write a few sentences about each photograph. Keep refining this list throughout the class.

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$640.00 Original price was: $640.00.$545.00Current price is: $545.00.Enroll Now

The post Writing Poetic Memoir: Flash or Prose Poems appeared first on Writers.com.

In this generative workshop, we’ll gather all the ingredients needed to move us out of the kitchen and into writing that reveals deeper truths about ourselves and the world around us. I’ll help you not only access your memories around the table, at the food truck, and on the picnic blanket, but help you give voice to the emotions tied to those experiences and how they’ve come to define who you are.

We’ll explore examples from contemporary poetry and prose, analyzing how writers use food to enhance meaning, and how they transform their experiences around food into compelling narratives. We’ll read the works of Dorianne Laux, William Carlos Williams, Natalie Diaz, Sharon Olds, and even comedians such as Rick Moranis and others.

You’ll receive feedback on your writing from fellow workshop members, and I’ll offer you detailed feedback on content and ideas for revision. You will be encouraged to post at least one revision of each piece for further development.

When the workshop concludes, you will have four drafts that just need a little seasoning to complete.

Who the class is for

Savory & Sweet is for students who have some creative writing experience, but is open to anyone who wants to take food off the plate and into poetic form.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Understand and utilize craft elements such as sound, repetition, line breaks, alliteration and assonance to create poems and short fiction.
• How to analyze your first drafts to find the “why” or emotional center, and learn ways to bring that center into focus in future drafts.
• Discover new ways to experiment and play by employing unexpected forms such as shopping lists, recipes, menus, inscriptions in cookbooks, and food reviews.

Writing Goals

• Develop four drafts of new poems and/or short fiction.
• Complete one revision of each draft. 

Weekly Syllabus

The post Savory & Sweet: A Food-themed Poetry and Short Form Workshop appeared first on Writers.com.

Imagine a great painter’s sketchbook, tucked into an inside pocket and opened whenever the moment presents itself: on the train, while her baby sleeps, or in the quiet of the morning with her coffee. On its pages, she scribbles and shades an image that might become her masterpiece, one she may soon forget, or nineteen attempts to get an ear just right. These sketches refine her craft, spark ideas for larger works, and hold a beauty and value all their own.

Your writer’s sketchbook will do just this—in 30 exploratory flash fiction or nonfiction pieces. We’ll begin with the senses, then move through people, places, literature, and art before exploring your personal history and deeper preoccupations. You can share your creations with classmates or keep them private, with the option to read and comment on others’ sketches.

Each week, I will provide gentle, generative feedback on one of your submissions. By the end of the month, you’ll have thirty new creations to develop, revise, or simply enjoy—and you’ll have had a lot of fun along the way.

Who This Course is For

This course is for anyone who would like to establish a consistent writing practice (at least for a month!). Whether you’re a novice or veteran writer—of fiction, nonfiction, or both—you’ll get the motivation and guidance you need to develop your artistic habit and produce a series of brand-new word sketches.

Learning Goals and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn to:

• Develop or enhance your understanding of how inspiration can be found in all sorts of places.
• Practice turning abstract ideas or fleeting notions into concrete scenes.
• Engage with a series of prompts that help you identify and develop story-worthy material.
• Reinforce a habit of writing every day, and an appreciation of the value that can bring to your life.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Write thirty new sketches (100-300 words), to be developed, incorporated into other pieces, or left as is.
• Offer (optional) constructive, generative feedback to your classmates.
• Process feedback from your classmates and your instructor.

Weekly Syllabus

Why Take a Scene Writing Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing courses lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with fellow writers in a supportive course environment.
• Award-winning instructor Colin Corrigan will offer you direct, personal feedback. 

The post 30 Scenes in 30 Days: A Writer’s Sketchbook appeared first on Writers.com.

What sets prose poetry apart? Without line breaks, prose poetry relies on the strength of the voice to resonate. In this course, you’ll learn to harness the natural musicality of language while ensuring your use of figurative language supports, rather than detracts from, the central metaphor of each piece.

You’ll explore how rhythms, pauses, patterns, and sentence structures shape your distinct style. As you fine-tune your tone and voice, you’ll create poetry that readers will return to, trusting it to transport them into a particular state of mind.

Each week, you’ll submit a new or revised poem and receive personalized feedback from both me and your classmates. I’ll highlight what’s working, from effective techniques to powerful imagery, and offer suggestions for areas that could be stronger, whether it’s avoiding clichés, making generalities more vivid, or tightening figurative language that strays from the poem’s core metaphor. If a line makes me laugh, cry, or evokes a strong reaction, I’ll share that response with you—and you may even hear it firsthand (as I sometimes provide audio feedback). 

No experience required. Whether you’re new to prose poetry or looking to refine your skills, this four-week, asynchronous course fits seamlessly into any schedule. Through a blend of reading, writing, and revising, you’ll explore the genre’s origins, meet its key figures, and see how it thrives in today’s literary scene—all while developing your own work in conversation with your peers.

Who This Course is For:

This course is designed for writers of all levels, whether you’re completely new to prose poetry or have some experience under your belt. All you need is a curiosity and the ability to commit to reading weekly lectures, exploring published poems online, and offering thoughtful feedback on your peers’ work. While most students will be polishing their poems with the goal of publication in mind, you’re welcome to join even if you’re writing for personal fulfillment—just let us know your goals. The focus is on progress, not perfection.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

• Learn about the history of prose poetry.
• Familiarize yourself with current prose poetry and magazines.
• Hone your skills from taking into consideration our feedback.

Writing Goals

• Write three to six new poems.
• You’ll practice evaluating poetry and develop a community.
• You’ll prepare to submit your poems to magazines and anthologies.

Weekly Syllabus

Why Take a Prose Poetry Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing courses lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with fellow writers in a supportive course environment.
• Award-winning instructor Rosemary Bensko will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$445.00 Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now

The post Publication-Ready Prose Poetry appeared first on Writers.com.