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

Comics for Writers

Instructor: Megan Kelso. This is a generative class for writers seeking to learn how to make comics and/or use drawing as a creative tool for improving their writing, practicing ways to access ideas visually, drawing on dreams, photographs, and more.

Course Status: Full
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Level: Intermediate, Introductory
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 16, 2024 , 7:10 pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Memoir, Young Adult/Children's Lit

Market While You Write

Instructor: Beth Jusino. Build your audience before you publish your book exploring the practical and realistic ways to gather a community using websites, mailing lists, social and traditional media, influencers, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 16, 2024 , - PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Writing for Performance

Writing Short Humor & Telling Big Jokes

Instructor: Mayur Chauhan. This generative class includes writing exercises, telling jokes in a highly supportive environment, adapting jokes into short humor pieces for humor publications, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 16, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Young Adult/Children's Lit, Novel, Short Story

Tech & Spec Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Carolyn Abram. This workshop focuses on the challenges and delights specific to tech and spec fiction, examining work from masters like Ted Chiang and Ursula K. Le Guin and the way communication shifts with technology.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 17, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Adding Dimensions to Creative Nonfiction

Instructor: Tamara Dean. In this workshop, we'll experiment with several techniques for expanding the dimensions of creative nonfiction, including speculation, research, structural invention, and stylistic innovation.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 18, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

How to Write a Family Portrait

Instructor: Kristen Millares Young. Learn to tell the stories that have preoccupied, amused, and defined your family for generations, reflecting on intimate truths that can redefine how we think about ourselves, our kin, and our communities.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 18, 2024 , 6:00pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Como Escribir un Retrato Familiar

Please note that this class will be taught in Spanish.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 18, 2024 , 7:30pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Memoir

Map Out Your Memoir

Instructor: Theo Nestor. This class includes activities to help students who are at the beginning stages of writing a memoir plan and structure their story.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 1 session
Start: April 18, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction

Nonfiction Character Intensive

Instructor: Jenny O'Connell. Through generative prompts, readings, and class discussions, we will explore characterization through motivation/desire, dialogue, perspective, themes, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 18, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, The Writing Life, Reading, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

The Sentence is the Spark

Instructor: Liza Birnbaum. In this class, we'll center our attention on micro-units of prose, looking at examples of vivid, lovely, and memorable language from writers like Ross Gay, Cormac McCarthy, and Toni Morrison, and exploring varied structures and techniques.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 18, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction, The Writing Life, Reading, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay

Bringing the Personal into Nature Writing

Instructor: Liza Birnbaum. In this class, students will read and write prose that brings the relationship between the self and the nonhuman world into sharp focus.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Poetry, Reading, Short Story, Writing for Performance

Escribiendo e ilustrando cuentos de suspenso

Please note that this class will be taught in Spanish.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: In Person
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Young Adult/Children's Lit, Novel, Short Story, Essay, Writing for Performance

How to Explain Anything

Instructor: Geraldine Woods. In this class, learn how to explain anything, in any genre, clearly and effectively. After analyzing examples from various writers, students will write their own explanatory passages.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, Reading

FOR BIPOC | Make Haste and Play: Exploring the Zuihitsu (Sliding Scale Tuition)

Instructor: Marguerite Harrold. The zuihitsu is a Japanese form and genre comparable to the lyric essay comprising casual, loosely connected fragments and ideas. Using Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book, this class will explore poetry, lyrical essays, and hybrid work.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 20, 2024 , 10:00 am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, Reading

Like a Poet: Using the Poetic Speaker

Instructor: Edward Sambrano III. This class will read and examine effective and imaginative use of the "poetic speaker" device—the perspective in which a poem is written. 

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Nonfiction, The Writing Life, Reading, Memoir, Short Story, Essay

Utilizing Poetic Techniques in Prose

Instructor: Joe Wilkins. In this craft workshop, we will discuss four techniques for attending to language and crafting evocative prose.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 1 session
Start: April 20, 2024 , 1:10pm PT
Format: Online
Nonfiction, Reading, Memoir, Essay

Writing about Work

Instructor: Kristi Coulter. This generative class will pair close analysis of published writing about workplaces with writing exercises designed to explore the weird, inspiring, infuriating, complicated place.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Introductory, Intermediate
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 20, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
Poetry, The Writing Life, Reading

“Cc Me!” Exploring Epistolary Poetry

Instructor: Cate Lycurgus. This generative class explores the letter poem and its opportunities for connection, social commentary or critique, catharsis, and discovery. 

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 4 sessions
Start: April 23, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Poetry

Poetry II

Instructor: Michelle Peñaloza. This class aims to explore poetic structure and craft in more detail through readings, prompts, discussions, and workshops of your poems.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 23, 2024 , - PT
Format: Online Asynchronous
Nonfiction, Poetry, The Writing Life, Reading, Memoir, Essay, Writing for Performance

Unlocking the Vault: The Personal Archive

Instructor: Molly Schaeffer. Mining our own notes and fragments for use in writing prompts, we'll recycle and experiment with our own words, utilizing techniques including collage, mapping, poetry, and memoir.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 8 sessions
Start: April 24, 2024 , 5:00pm PT
Format: Online
Fiction, Writing for Performance

Playwriting: Diving into Dialogue

Instructor: Danielle Mohlman. Shape the dialogue of your play by building and creating compelling characters, exploring voice, and driving your plot forward through your characters' behaviors and choices.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 24, 2024 , 7:10pm PT
Format: Online
Reading, Writing for Performance

Discovering the Play in Playwriting

Instructor: Miriam Tobin. Through a combination of readings, interactive conversations, and generative writing exercises, students will explore playwriting elements such as structure, characters, setting, action, and style.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 6 sessions
Start: April 25, 2024 , 7:10 pm PT
Format: In Person
Nonfiction, The Writing Life, Young Adult/Children's Lit, Essay

How to Be an Author for Hire

Instructor: Rachel Werner.  Learn the benefits and opportunities of navigating the "lesser-known" paths to becoming a published author working with educational institutions, businesses, publishers, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Open to all levels
Length: 1 session
Start: April 25, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online
The Writing Life

Artist Statements for Creative Writers

Instructor: Lyzette Wanzer. Open to writers of all genres, students in this workshop will read, craft, and revise through several drafts of their artist statements for practical application with grants, author websites, residency and funding applications, and more.

Course Status: Seats left
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Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Length: 1 session
Start: April 27, 2024 , 10:00am PT
Format: Online