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.

Writing for Performance

Screenwriting Rooted in Decolonization & Abstract Thinking

Instructor: Maria Judice. This screenwriting workshop pairs ideas and readings from political thinkers, intellectuals, and philosophers with politically-centered screenwriters and screenplays.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 18, 2024 , 7:10pm 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.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: January 19, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Novel, Short Story

Fantastic First Lines

Instructor: Susan Meyers. This weekend intensive for memoir or fiction students focuses on creating a compelling story start.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 1 session
Start: January 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction

Writing about Pleasure

Instructor: Darina Sikmashvili. Explore and write about pleasure via generative exercises and reading discussions, with a focus on discovering the ways pleasure can be derived from craft elements such as setting, character, and sentence style.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 4 sessions
Start: January 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Write Your Story: Writing to Heal

Instructor: Ingrid Ricks. Learn how to identify, structure, and develop your personal narrative, with writing assignments and individual coaching sessions with the instructor.

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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 5 sessions
Start: January 20, 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
The Writing Life

Lynda Barry’s Unthinkable Mind & Image World

Instructor: Sarah Dalton. Practice writing, drawing, and creative collaboration techniques developed by Lynda Barry to explore what she calls the Unthinkable Mind or the Image World.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: In Person
Reading, Writing for Performance

Plotting with Zombies

Instructor: Daniel Pope. In this class, we will take a deep dive into the study of plot and story structure via the HBO show The Last of Us.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Our First Gods: Writing Our Parents

Instructor: Joe Wilkins. In this generative workshop participants will think, discuss, and write about a parental figure in the hopes that all will leave with the beginnings of a personal essay.

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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: January 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
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
The Writing Life

The Writer’s Notebook

Instructor: Molly Schaeffer. Combining generative exercises, workshops, and notable examples, we'll investigate the relationship between writers/artists and their notebooks, and ask how our notebooks can feed our creative work and even be the creative work itself.

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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 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
The Writing Life

Self Publish Like a Pro

Instructor: Beth Jusino. This class guides students through the nitty-gritty of the constantly changing self-publishing process, including pricing, distribution options, hiring freelancers, choosing a format (print? ebook? audio?), and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 4 sessions
Start: January 22, 2024 , 12:00am PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Fiction, Nonfiction

16-Week: Contextualizing the Family Story

Instructor: Jaimie Li. This class will connect our intimate experiences to a broader social history, using a combination of research and in-class writing assignments, towards producing individual stories that reflect a greater sense of where we come from and who we are.

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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 16 sessions
Start: January 23, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
The Writing Life

Building Your Author Platform

Instructor: Theo Nestor. This course covers the basics of platform building, from author websites to essay publication, blogs, email lists, and social media, and more.

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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 1 session
Start: January 23, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Creative Nonfiction II

Instructor: Meghan Lamb. Investigate nonfiction strategies and narrative structures—including lists, profiles, braids, and epistolaries—exploring what it means to "exaggerate" without "lying."

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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: January 23, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
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
Reading, Essay

Reading the Asian American Essay

Instructor: Joyce Chen. In this class, we'll read a wide array of essays written by writers both canonical and contemporary, and use them as a vehicle into discussions about craft, voice, audience, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 23, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction

20-Week: Fiction/Nonfiction Daytime Workshop

Instructor: Peter Mountford. This daytime workshop offers regular deadlines, accountability, strong community, and high-quality feedback and peer review.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 20 sessions
Start: January 24, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction

Workshop for Weirdos

Instructor: Carolyn Abram. With in-class workshop and readings, students will discuss craft elements of creating weird stories, such as worldbuilding, genre expectations, and publication options.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 24, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Essay

Writing About Past Travels

Instructor: Monika Sengul-Jones. Visit your inward passages by writing a travel essay about past travels. Pack your memories, memorabilia, journal entries, library cards, and beloved dreams.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: January 24, 2024 , 7:10pm 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.

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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