Long-time writer or just getting started? Writing an epic poem or a short story? Whoever you are and wherever your passions lie—if you want to write, there’s a Hugo House class for you. Explore our catalog and find yours.
When we say we want our classes to be for everyone, we mean it.
Instructor: Edward Sambrano III. This class will read and examine effective and imaginative use of the "poetic speaker" device—the perspective in which a poem is written.
Instructor: Liza Birnbaum. In this class, students will read and write prose that brings the relationship between the self and the nonhuman world into sharp focus.
Please note that this class will be taught in Spanish.
Instructor: Geraldine Woods. In this class, learn how to explain anything, in any genre, clearly and effectively. After analyzing examples from various writers, students will write their own explanatory passages.
Instructor: Joe Wilkins. In this craft workshop, we will discuss four techniques for attending to language and crafting evocative prose.
Instructor: Danielle Mohlman. Shape the dialogue of your play by building and creating compelling characters, exploring voice, and driving your plot forward through your characters' behaviors and choices.
Instructor: Jaye Viner. In this class, students will study and discuss different approaches to descriptive language through craft lectures and generative writing prompts.
Instructor: Jasmine Griffin. In this class, participants will discuss four subgenres of horror and analyze four short horror fiction pieces, learning how to apply techniques from the texts to their own work.
Instructor: Meghan Lamb. This class will include readings, exercises, and conversations to explore how non-human perspectives can help us access the most essential elements of our humanity.
Instructor: Tina Tocco. For adult, middle grade, or YA fiction writers, this generative fiction workshop will use images, lists, sounds, brainstorming, and other prompts to help get your mind whirling and fingers flying.
Instructor: Alle Hall. Learn about the evolving publishing industry—money, queries, agents, and more—and generate fiction using writing exercises, peer and teacher feedback, and more. Leave with a solid draft of one piece, two query letters, and a system for tracking submissions.
Instructor: Tara Campbell. Explore the genre of flash fiction and create your own compact masterpieces, with reading and discussions around the definition of flash fiction, fundamentals of storytelling within the constraints of flash, and more.
Instructor: Deborah Woodard. Visiting local museums, we'll write poems and/or short prose in response to the art we observe, with weekly prompts, class read-arounds, and instructor feedback.
Instructor: Grace Bialecki. Through close readings and sharing their work aloud, students will practice hearing dialogue and identifying techniques to keep their writing emotive and original.
Instructor: Kimberly Lee. For beginner and seasoned writers alike, this generative workshop will serve as a safe haven for exploration and self-expression with engaging prompts designed to awaken your imagination.
Instructor: Andrew Zawacki. Dive into the work of radical midcentury Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, widely recognized for the volatile strangeness of her writing, which pushes language, genre, sexuality, and the experience of self to their limits.
Instructor: Jennifer Haupt. Students will workshop the first ten pages of their book, learning to balance backstory, present action, and foreshadowing.
Instructor: Rachel Sobel. This course will introduce students to the craft of fiction and the basics of the workshop model.
Instructor: Tara Campbell. This generative class will explore three ways of unlocking new stories: crafting narratives from common expressions, gleaning horror from unfinished business, and using deliberate paradoxes.
Instructor: Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet. In this workshop, we'll use guided meditation, visualization, and writing exercises to identify and soften our own particular versions of resistance and to reconnect with the parts of us that use language to create.
Instructor: Greg November. This generative one-day workshop is all about things, stuff, items—creating a world on the page through the power of ordinary items that evoke passions, fears, dreams, and all manner of big, big ideas.
Instructor: Ruth Joffre. This class will ask students to envision fantastical and futuristic environments and invent new selves deeply rooted in landscape, reading and studying contemporary speculative fiction about the environment, including climate fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Instructor: Noah Zanella. This class will look at the potential of the journal as a crucial component of a writer's practice, reading from the journals/diaries of Franz Kafka, Joanne Kyger, George Oppen, and more, engaging in various journaling practices and using this material to generate stories, poems, or essays.
Instructors: Midge Raymond, John Yunker. For all writers who wish to collaborate on prose writing, learn to research, write, edit, and pitch as a team.
Instructor: Alli Parrett. Explore elements of craft that translate real life moments into captivating stories on the page, examining excerpts from Brandon Taylor's Real Life and more.
© 2022 Hugo House
