Winter registration starts soon! Registration opens for members on Dec. 5 and for the general public on Dec. 12.

Class Catalog

There’s a class for everyone.

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.

Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life

You’ve Been Rejected, Now What?

Instructor: Natasha Moni. Learn from a former editor and author how to examine and respond to rejections and strategize for publication success.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: December 2, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, Reading

Multi-Languaging Poetry

Instructor: Siwar Masannat. In this generative course, students will read and discuss poems in two or more languages, examining craft and poetic occasions, and practice poetic techniques.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 2 sessions
Start: December 2, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Sestinas!

Instructor: Melanie Figg. This session will introduce students to the sestina, examining "rules" and craft elements that create successful poems; with instructor insights and revision discussion, students will leave with a sestina start.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: December 2, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry

The Poems Only You Can Write

Instructor: Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet. Explore and expand the terrain of our work through the lenses of our personal aesthetic(s) and obsessions to inspire new directions, generate new work, and offer more productive and authentic feedback.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 2 sessions
Start: December 3, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Writing for Performance

Expressive Writing for Creativity, Serenity, & Joy

Instructor: Kimberly Lee. In this workshop, we'll engage with structured journaling techniques to clarify and organize thoughts while inspiring ideas for writing projects and managing stress.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 1 session
Start: December 9, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reading, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Layers of Landscape: Harnessing the Power of Place

Instructor: Joe Wilkins. From chain restaurants to cross-country travel, learn to harness the power of place, including its force on communities, in your writing.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: December 10, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reading

Boundary Breaker: Writing with Tricksters

Instructor: Shankar Narayan. Explore the role of tricksters across mythologies, including South Asian and North American Indigenous traditions, in this part-analytic, part-generative course.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 17, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Essay

Linger & Leap: Writing the Lyric Essay

Instructor: Alexandra Lytton Regalado. Explore the lyric essay across various forms, with class discussion and activities to generate new writing that is formulated and shaped like prose, but moves and sounds like poetry.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 4 sessions
Start: January 17, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry II

Instructor: Jeanine Walker. Add to your growing skill set in a supportive workshop environment by closely reading and responding to mentor texts as well as each other's poems.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: January 17, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry III

Instructor: Ed Skoog. Deepen your engagement with writing and discussing poems, with in-class review of students' work.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Advanced
Length: 10 sessions
Start: January 17, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Hysteria: Violent Women in Asian Poetry

Instructor: Christine Kwon. With a mix of close reading and generative workshop, this class will explore the violently modern, feminist, and political. poetry of Kim Hyesoon, Kim Yideum, and Masayo Koike.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 18, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Writing for Performance

Writing for Procrastinators

Instructor: Beth Slattery. Establish a writing practice and break patterns of procrastination with weekly writing and reading assignments.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 8 sessions
Start: January 18, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, Essay

The Lightning & Its Source

Instructor: Brian Turner. In this generative workshop, we'll look at a variety of ways to weave science and our curiosity for the natural world into our poems and lyric essays.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: January 19, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, The Writing Life

Writing with Local Poets: A Literary Salon

Instructor: Deborah Woodard. This class will read books by local poets who will visit the class to read from their work and discuss craft, their journey toward publication, and more. Expect weekly prompts, read arounds, and instructor feedback.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Poetry

(Line) Breaks, Breakage, & Enjambment

Instructor: Daemond Arrindell. In this generative class, we will examine the utilization of line breaks, breakage, pauses, and enjambment that force the reader to bear witness through a new lens.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: January 22, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry I

Instructor: Michelle Peñaloza. Whether you're a beginning poet or a lover of the art, this class will introduce students week by week to elements of poetic craft.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 22, 2024 , 12:00am PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Poetry

Introduction to Poetic Form

Instructor: Tiana Nobile. In this course, participants will read and write both traditional forms (i.e. sonnet, ghazal) and modern, experimental forms (erasure, golden shovel), with discussions and in-class workshop.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 23, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Essay

Trees & Us

Instructor: Claudia Castro Luna. This generative class explores how trees have inspired human consciences, bodies, structures, imaginations, and work. Engage with a variety of texts—letters, essays, music, poetry, to examine our relationships to the tree societies around us.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 7 sessions
Start: January 25, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: In Person
Poetry

Voice & Tone in Persona Poems

Instructor: Melanie Figg. Explore the persona poem, particularly voice and tone, by reading writing poems written in the voices of objects, people, and nature.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 3 sessions
Start: January 25, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Breaking Up Time & Space

Instructor: Cedar Sigo. This workshop will investigate various ways of capturing and recording details of the everyday, exploring questions of craft and creativity around voice, tone, inflection, time and chronology, rehearsal versus practice, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: January 26, 2024 , 11:00am PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Essay

Accompanying Crisis

Instructor: Susan Briante. Through readings and exercises, participants will consider the ethics of writing out of and through crisis, taking inspiration from writers confronting violence and climate change, as well as historic and contemporary oppressions, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 2 sessions
Start: January 27, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Essay

Bake a Zine

Instructor: Kate Lebo. How can a recipe tell a story? This generative class will mash up family recipe-writing traditions with poetry, flash fiction, and the personal essay to see what emerges on the other side.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: January 27, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: In Person
Poetry

Poetry: Fast & Fearless

Instructor: Kimberly Dark. This "crash" course on poetry explores craft elements such as form, metaphors, movement, and tropes, strategies for editing, and more with in-class writing and discussion.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: January 27, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Story, Essay

Decolonizing Nature Writing

Instructor: Jennifer Perrine. This generative class will read nature-centered poetry, essays, and fiction by Black, Indigenous, Asian American, and Latine writers. With writing prompts derived from forest bathing, bird noticing, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 4 sessions
Start: February 1, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online