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.

Nonfiction, Essay

How to Break Into Journalism

Instructor: Sabra Boyd. This course will help you identify subjects, review different formats, discuss ethics, explore interview and research techniques, and strategize how to pitch editors and get your work published.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 25, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Working Through Writer’s Block

Instructor: Gracie Bialecki. By working with a combination of prompts, group activities, and readings, we will spark our creativity while exploring methods of writing when we feel stuck. 

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 2 sessions
Start: September 25, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Short Story

Yearlong in Short Story

Instructor: Ramon Isao. The short story remains arguably the best medium through which a fiction writer hones their craft, and in this class that's exactly our aim. Read, write, discuss, and critique short fiction with equal parts rigor and vigor.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 30 sessions
Start: September 26, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Poetry

The Sweep of the Universe: Writing with Millennia of South Asian Poetry

Instructor: Shankar Narayan. This part-generative, part-analytical course will survey the breadth and reach of South Asian poetry by examining its various forms and movements over the centuries—from ancient Sanskrit religious texts to Urdu political resistance poetry.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 8 sessions
Start: September 26, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Essay

The Most Personal Essay

Instructor: Nicole Hardy. Focusing on structure, narrative voice, and scene, students will draft, workshop, and revise first person essays. Participants will receive one-on-one editorial advice and leave with a polished essay.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 8 sessions
Start: September 26, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Creative Nonfiction I

Instructor: Beth Slattery. Using generative writing, reading, and an introduction to the workshop model, we will investigate our own personal stories, exploring craft elements such as points of view, scene, reflection, and form. 

Course Status: Full
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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 26, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Yearlong in Poetry: A Study of Form

Instructor: Dilruba Ahmed. This extended workshop will focus on various poetic forms with specific craft constraints and/or thematic traditions.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 30 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction

Creative Nonfiction II

Instructor: Gail Folkins. This generative class explores the expressive, informative, and versatile writing styles of creative nonfiction, with discussion, extensive feedback, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry II

Instructor: Naa Akua. This generative workshop will build on the foundation of Poetry I, with close readings and discussions of work by Audre Lorde, Chen Chen, Andrea Gibson, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry I

Instructor: Jeanine Walker. This introductory course provides a foundation for writing new poems, exploring craft elements such as image, metaphor, form, sound, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Novel, Short Story

The Story That Got Away

Instructor: Carolyn Abram. In this revision-focused course, we'll work on fleshing out and finalizing stories that had previously fizzled out.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Writing About Death

Instructor: Katherine Standefer. In this nonfiction class, we'll explore the craft of writing about death, noticing the narrative structures and syntax that effectively hold brutal experiences.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 27, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Yearlong in Poetry

Instructor: Bill Carty. The class will mix workshop (in large and small groups), in-class exercises, weekly take-home prompts, and a discussion of contemporary poems and craft concerns.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 30 sessions
Start: September 28, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Writing Grief: Time, Form, & Memory

Instructor: Joyce Chen. Explore the complexities of transforming grief into affecting art by studying writing that utilizes time, form, and memory.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 28, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction

Fiction I

Instructor: Alma Garćia. Explore the basic craft elements of fiction writing with in-class writing, discussions, readings, and workshopping in a supportive environment.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: September 28, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Nonfiction, Reading, Essay

The Case for Beauty

Instructor: Kascha Semonovitch. This course explores definitions of beauty, theories from feminist and post-colonial perspectives, examining beauty's relationship to literature.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 8 sessions
Start: September 28, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Nonfiction, Essay

Mining Darkness for Light: The Art of Humorous Memoir

Instructor: Courtenay Hameister. This workshop explores the relationship between humor and sadness, anger, shame, and other vulnerable truths.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Intermediate, Introductory
Length: 2 sessions
Start: September 30, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry

For BIPOC | Deep Empathy: The Persona Poem

Instructor: Marguerite Harrold. In this course we will practice writing persona poems—poems that offer us a chance to experience empathy in new and meaningful ways while recreating our own stories.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: September 30, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry & Intimacies

Instructor: Taneum Bambrick. This generative course will study poems that enact care, joy, and/or humor while exploring intimacy and the intimate self, focusing on themes of love and relation.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 2 sessions
Start: September 30, 2023 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Essay

The Micro Essay

Instructor: Anna Vodicka. Explore the ranges of short-form nonfiction, learn how restraint and constraint can enhance the power of prose, and practice the art of economy in your own micro essays inspired by readings and prompts.

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

A Year with the Moon: Creation, Workshop, Chapbook

Instructor: Sierra Nelson. Drawing inspiration from scientific, esoteric, and mythological moons, this course takes students through generating, workshopping, and compiling moon-themed chapbooks.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 30 sessions
Start: October 2, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction

Elements of the Short Form: Intro to Flash

Instructor: Becca Yenser. This generative class explores the flash as a form, specifically examining five elements of flash, with discussion, peer review, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 5 sessions
Start: October 2, 2023 , 12:00am PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Fiction, Reading, Novel

Reading Proust Slowly

Instructor: Liza Birnbaum. This class will spend eight weeks with the first volume of Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, close-reading for craft, with discussions and weekly prompts.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: October 2, 2023 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Novel, Short Story

How Stories Get Told: Voice, Narrative, & Psychic Distance

Instructor: Scott Driscoll. Explore narrative distance, voice, and psychic distance with readings from Olive Kitteridge and The Best American Short Stories 2022 and in-class exercises.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: October 2, 2023 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online