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.

Short Story, Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Memoir, Novel

Writer’s Welcome Kit (ASYNCHRONOUS)

This asynchronous course features online workbooks, including ten essential templates in Word and Excel to kickstart your writing life, and resources professional writers use to get published.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length:
Start: April 9, 2023 , 12:00am PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Fiction, Novel, Short Story

Fiction I

Instructor: Susan V. Meyers. This course will introduce students to the workshop model focusing on three key elements of fiction: description, conflict, and character.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 10, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Autofiction

Instructor: Corinne Manning. This generative workshop examines and explores autofiction—an experimental form of autobiographical writing that considers the container of the story and examines the speaker.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 11, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Short Story, Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel

Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Exploring the Paths of the Heroine, Healer, & Seeker

Instructor: Kimberly Lee. This fun and interactive class explores narratives beyond the traditional hero’s journey through their appearance in literature, film, poetry, podcasts and more.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 12, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Novel, Short Story, Fiction, Young Adult/Children's Lit

Writing for Kids 101

Instructor: Tina Tocco. With optional take-home exercises and in-class writing prompts, students will generate and workshop new work focused on writing for ages 8-12.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 12, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reading, The Writing Life, Memoir, Novel, Short Story

Writing the Reading Life

Instructor: Liza Birnbaum. In this class, we’ll read work by authors who bring books into their accounts of daily living, looking closely at craft choices that weave literary reflection into lively narration.

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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 13, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Writing Vulnerability, Writing Resilience

Instructor: Leora Fridman. This participant-driven workshop will explore contemporary nonfiction on illness and disability, with extensive opportunities to write into the realities of vulnerable bodies and to offer one another generative feedback. 

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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 13, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Novel, Short Story, Fiction

Start Writing Right Now

Instructor: Tina Tocco. This generative class offers a low-stress, supportive environment for those eager to experiment with fiction writing, with imaginative prompts such as music, sounds, images, and more.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 15, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Tracing the Map of Translation

Instructor: Eugenia Toledo, Carolyne Wright. Poets and translators Eugenia Toledo and Carolyne Wright will share translations from several Chilean poets and present poems from Eugenia's award-winning bilingual volume, Map Traces, Blood Traces

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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 15, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay, Fiction

Museum as Muse

Instructor: Deborah Woodard. Explore your writing with four Seattle museums—the Frye Art Museum, the National Nordic Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the Henry Art Gallery. 

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 15, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Reading, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay, Fiction

Sara Stridsberg’s Valerie: Writing Against Patriarchy

Instructor: Kaelie Giffel. This class will examine Sara Stridsberg's Valerie, with discussions and prompts utilizing Stridsberg's techniques, such as play-like dialogues, abecedaria, court records, and history to jump-start our work.

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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 16, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reading, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Lost in Longing With Middlemarch

Instructor: Corinne Manning, Jay Aquinas Thompson. With discussions and generative prompts, this co-taught class will adopt feminist and queer explorations of George Eliot's Middlemarch

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 17, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Short Story

Writing Short Fiction: From Blank Page to the Last Page

Instructor: Holly Day. This class will offer a variety of generative prompts, from basic character formation and development exercises to creating vivid scenes and scenarios for your characters to live and participate in. 

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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 17, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Reading, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Out of the Blue, a Meteorite: Writing with South Asian Bhakti Poetry

Instructor: Shankar Narayan. In this part-generative, part-analytical course, we'll examine the diverse voices of South Asian bhakti poetry—a centuries-old movement of devotional poetry that finds divinity in the beloved.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 19, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Reading, Short Story

Advanced Short Story Workshop

Instructor: Peter Mountford. In this generative course, students will read and examine short stories with an eye toward craft and apply those skills in refining two of their own pieces (one short, one long). 

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Level: Advanced
Length: 10 sessions
Start: April 19, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Novel, Short Story, Fiction, The Writing Life

Bloody Beats: Outlining Your Horror Novel

Instructor: Kelly McWilliams, Wendy N. Wagner. With examples from literature and film, students will explore and examine the concept of "beats" in building an outline for a horror novel.

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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 2 sessions
Start: April 22, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel, Short Story

Constructing Connections

Instructor: Geraldine Woods. This class examines writing techniques that connect reader to writer (point of view, voice), idea to idea (parallelism, sound), emotion to experience (sensory detail, figurative language), and more.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 22, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

FREE | Breaking the Seal: Finally Submitting Work

Instructor: Alli Parrett. This class will look at few submission tools, both for short and long works, review examples of cover letters, and discuss the dos and don'ts of submissions. 

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 23, 2023 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Essay, Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Novel, Short Story

Dynamic Dialogue

Instructor: Susan V. Meyers. This class introduces the art of subtext: those implied messages that give invisible life to the things we say.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 23, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Characters We Care About

Instructor: Grace Bialecki. This course is designed for writers of all genres seeking to create compelling, dimensional characters.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 2 sessions
Start: April 24, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Short Story

The Elements of the Short Story

Instructor: Midge Raymond. In this class for beginning and seasoned writers alike, we'll learn through discussions, assignments, and readings the craft elements of character, voice, plot, pacing, structure, and more.

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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 25, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Short Story, Fiction, Novel

Freedom to Write Badly

Instructor: Rachel Sobel. In this course, we'll cover classic tough topics in fiction, discussing the freedom and insight we gain from letting ourselves be "bad writers" and exploring aspects of writing which scare us. 

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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 27, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: In Person
Short Story, Fiction, Novel

Fiction II

Instructor: Alma García. This class will build upon craft learned in Fiction I, with weekly readings, in-class and take-home writing exercises, class discussions, and workshopping in a supportive environment.

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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 27, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Beyond the Book: Text, Image, & Experiments in the In-Between

Instructor: Molly Schaeffer. This class will investigate and interrogate the book and its form, exploring the integration of visual art, chapbooks, zines, and more.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: May 1, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online