Book Lab is a nine-month intensive for writers who’ve completed (or nearly completed) a draft of a novel, memoir, short story collection, or hybrid manuscript. Whether you're preparing to publish or refining your story into the best version of itself, this program offers mentorship, structure, and community to help you take the next step in your book journey.
cohort, workshop, publishing
16
Sessions
Tuesdays, September 22, 2026 - June 15, 2027
7:10-9:10 pm PT
In Person
Fiction
Advanced
Book Lab is a nine-month intensive for writers who’ve completed (or nearly completed) a draft of a novel, memoir, short story collection, or hybrid manuscript. Whether you're preparing to publish or refining your story into the best version of itself, this program offers mentorship, structure, and community to help you take the next step in your book journey.
cohort, workshop, publishing
16
Sessions
Wednesdays, September 23, 2026 - June 16, 2027
5:00-7:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Advanced
What do you stand for? We’ll explore the manifesto, a literary form for expressing your deepest convictions. Read and discuss manifestos across genres and movements as you write into your own beliefs, giving form to your fire.
generative, cohort, personal growth
6
Sessions
Thursdays, September 24 - October 29, 2026
5:00-7:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Intermediate
Spend nine months immersed in your book-length memoir project. Through intensive workshops, craft discussions, and sustained revision, you'll make significant progress on your manuscript alongside a dedicated community of fellow memoirists.
generative, craft, workshop
30
Sessions
Thursdays, September 24, 2026 - June 10, 2027
5:00-7:00 pm PT
In Person
Nonfiction
Advanced
The world is already stranger than fiction. Learn playful techniques for transforming everyday ideas into speculative stories. Leave with three fresh story starts and new ways to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
generative
1
Session
Saturday, September 26, 2026
10:00-1:00 pm PT
In Person
Fiction
Advanced
Take your personal essay from idea to polished piece. You’ll write while studying craft elements and workshop your draft several times in a supportive cohort of peers. Essays started in this class have later appeared in literary magazines and major outlets.
generative, craft, workshop
8
Sessions
Saturdays, September 26 - November 21, 2026
10:00-12:00 pm PT
In Person
Nonfiction
Intermediate
How do we find language for death? Explore how writers reckon with illness, decline, grief, mortality, and decomposition while making room for beauty, complexity, and the visceral. Write into your own experiences and leave with a new essay draft that finds language for what can feel impossible to say.
generative, craft, close reading
6
Sessions
Wednesdays, September 30 - November 4, 2026
7:10-9:10 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Advanced
Love and loss. Hope and uncertainty. Joy and grief. Through generative writing, reflection, and small-group sharing, you’ll explore the complex emotions that coexist within us and transform them into new poems, essays, and stories.
generative, cohort, personal growth
1
Session
Saturday, October 3, 2026
1:10-4:10 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
“You are my affliction.” Sink into the seductive convergence of horror and romance. You’ll write into longing, obsession, beautiful monsters, and emotional tension while learning to blend two of fiction's most irresistible genres.
generative, close reading
6
Sessions
Thursdays, October 8 - November 12, 2026
5:00-7:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Learn to write in the language of dreams. Tap into surreal imagery, sensory detail, emotional truth, and impossible leaps of logic to generate vivid poetry and prose—bypassing your inner critic and making room for the wonderful and strange.
generative
1
Session
Saturday, October 10, 2026
10:00-12:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Explore the possibilities the internet offers writers, as writers. We’ll look at a range of platforms—their cultures, constraints, and style guides—set up accounts, explore their possibilities, and practice crafting and flexing our writerly voice across different formats.
cohort, creative practice, professional development
4
Sessions
Tuesdays, October 13 - November 3, 2026
5:00-7:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Advanced
Young readers are game for anything so let your imagination run wild. Explore the creative possibilities of Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction as you dream up unexpected premises, experiment with voice and storytelling, and generate new stories in a playful, supportive workshop.
generative, close reading, workshop
6
Sessions
Wednesdays, October 14 - November 18, 2026
10:00-1:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Introductory
There are numerous ways to tell a big story. Explore linked fiction, where standalone stories connect and accumulate into a larger narrative, and discover how recurring characters, places, themes, and perspectives can open new possibilities for your own writing, one story at a time.
generative, close reading, cohort
6
Sessions
Thursdays, October 15 - November 19, 2026
7:10-9:10 pm PT
In Person
Fiction
This beginner-friendly introduction to creative nonfiction explores how memory, observation, and lived experience can become personal essays, memoir, lyric nonfiction, and more. Learn foundational craft, experiment with different forms, and discover new ways to tell the stories that matter to you.
generative, craft, workshop
6
Sessions
Thursdays, October 15 - November 19, 2026
10:00-12:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Introductory
Your story’s solid, but is your opening pulling its weight? In this one-day intensive, sharpen your first paragraphs for maximum impact and give agents, editors, and your audience a reason to keep reading.
generative, craft, close reading
1
Session
Thursday, October 15, 2026
5:00-8:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Your journal already contains the seeds for your next piece of writing. Learn how to mine your notebooks for stories, scenes, and ideas while building a richer, more intentional journaling practice that feeds your creative work, too.
generative, creative practice
1
Session
Saturday, October 17, 2026
10:00-1:00 pm PT
In Person
Nonfiction
Build unforgettable characters from the inside out. Through discussion, craft lessons, and generative writing, you’ll learn to create emotionally resonant protagonists whose journeys drive your story forward.
generative, craft
6
Sessions
Mondays, October 19 - November 23, 2026
5:00-7:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Intermediate
A great premise and interesting characters won’t save a snoozefest. In this 3-hour intensive, learn what actually makes a story feel urgent and alive. We’ll study great works that do it well and borrow their lessons in rising action, pacing, suspense, and character decision-making.
generative, craft, close reading
1
Session
Thursday, October 22, 2026
5:00-8:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Ready to start a blog or make more of the one you have? Learn how to find your niche, reach your audience, create engaging content, and grow your readership while exploring ways blogging can lead to paid writing and new professional opportunities.
generative, workshop, professional development
4
Sessions
Thursdays, October 22 - November 12, 2026
10:00-12:00 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Intermediate
How does funny serve good writing? Learn to use pattern, rhythm, expectation, and surprise to create humor that reveals character, builds intimacy, subverts assumptions, and opens unexpected avenues into difficult material.
generative, craft
1
Session
Saturday, October 24, 2026
10:00-1:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Discover the freedom of writing in fragments: tiny scenes, flashes of memory, stray sentences, and other pieces that can carry surprising emotional weight. Play with juxtaposition, arrangement, and silence as you explore what fragments can reveal without explaining everything.
generative
1
Session
Saturday, October 24, 2026
10:00-1:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Explore your connection to the natural world through writing rooted in presence and sensory experience. This generative class invites you to slow down, pay attention, and shape what you notice into language that blooms on the page.
generative, personal growth
4
Sessions
Mondays, October 26 - November 23, 2026
7:10-9:10 pm PT
Online
Fiction
Intermediate
Ready to write your life story? Learn the fundamentals of memoir while exploring contemporary voices, generating fresh writing, and building the confidence to share your work.
generative, craft, close reading
6
Sessions
Tuesdays, October 27 - December 8, 2026
10:00-12:00 pm PT
Online
Nonfiction
Introductory
Curious about how publishing works and what path is right for you? Explore your options, clarify your goals, and build a strategy that supports your creative vision in this five-week introduction to the publishing industry.
professional development, publishing
6
Sessions
Tuesdays, October 27 - December 8, 2026
7:10-9:10 pm PT
In Person
Fiction
© 2022 Hugo House
16
Sessions 
In Person
Fiction
Advanced