“Time and Distance Overcome”: I titled this class after an essay of the same name by Eula Biss. I wanted a few words to suggest how a dive into the historical record can yield surprising and urgent connections to our…
Ed Skoog is an award-winning poet and author of four books of poetry. His latest collection Travelers Leaving For the City will be released by Copper Canyon Press on May 26. Listen to Ed’s reading of the titular piece here….
The hybrid memoir has the potential to be far more than a straight-up personal story. The appeal is the creativity of blending various elements and the result is a fresh take that can resonate in larger ways than a traditional…
When I initially planned my spring quarter Embodied Ecopoetics workshop, the world was a different place. I offered my first installment of this workshop at Hugo House in the fall and was excited about the opportunity to offer it again…
With National Poetry Month starting April 1, Hugo Instructor Janée Baugher wrote this poem for the blog. Her class, National Poetry Month Intensive, starts tomorrow. Late registrations are welcome. Call 206.322.7030 to sign up. Learn more » I’m thinking about…
Never taken a class using Zoom before? Don’t worry! We’re here to help. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently about using Zoom. If your question isn’t on this list, please write us at…
Divorcing ourselves from meaning in writing can feel impossible. We get lost in our narratives and our characters, in the metaphors we’re creating and the incredible dialogue that we just can’t seem to fit into the story. But the freedom…
Have #OwnVoices finally become mainstream? Do you have a preconceived notion it will be easier to query your manuscript because diverse books are now trending? The latest research, compiled by Lee & Low Books and released earlier this week, seems…
Sally Rooney’s novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People have been two of the most talked-about books of the past five years. Profiles of Rooney tend to feature her age (she’s not yet thirty) and to deploy descriptions like “phenomenon”…
There are many reasons music resonates with us. Most times it’s because that music has prompted a bit of nostalgia. Maybe it reminds you of your childhood or of a loved one or even a lover. Sometimes music can remind…
As the author of Long Story Short, the Only Storytelling Guide You’ll Ever Need and What’s Your Story? A Workbook for the Storyteller in All of Us, I get asked a lot about how long a story for the stage…
In the many years since I decided to become a writer and teacher, I’ve heard numerous students, and even established writers, bemoan what they call writer’s block with some variation of the lament “I just don’t feel I have anything…
When it comes to emphasizing, setting off, and differentiating bits of dialogue, cartoonists and comic artists have a wide range of graphic techniques at their disposal. Used in moderation, these approaches to visual writing can really add to your characters’…
“If I can get that first paragraph right,” Stephen King once told The Atlantic, “I’ll know I can do the book.” Starting a story—or novel—can feel pretty intimidating. And to be sure, a compelling start can do more than encourage…
When people learn that I’m a nature writer, there’s a natural assumption that what I spend most of my time doing is writing about nature. While it would not be unkind or even inaccurate to characterize my work this way,…
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