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Alphabetical: 10 Weeks to a Micro Essay Chapbook

with Darien Gee

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essay

Online

Open to all levels

10 Sessions

Start Date: January 14, 2025
End Date: March 18, 2025
Day of Week: Tuesday
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm PT
Capacity: 25 seats
General Price: $608.00

In stock

For writers of all levels seeking an unconventional approach to memoir and personal essay. In this 10-week workshop, you'll craft 26 short memoir essays (50-500 words each) in the abecedarian format, which uses the alphabet as an organizing framework. Taking inspiration from Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Bloomsbury's Object Lesson series, Naomi Cohn’s Braille Encyclopedia, and Miranda Keeling's The Year I Stopped to Notice, we'll delve into the objects, people, and places of your life, creating pieces that capture slices of your lived experience.  

You’ll write to prompts designed to stimulate recollection and creativity, learn to draw significance from seemingly mundane moments, and discover how simple observations can lead to deep personal insights and universal truths.  

Leave with a draft chapbook of 26 interconnected memoir essays, enhanced skills in personal narrative writing, and new techniques for generating and organizing personal material.  

What to expect: 

  • Generative Writing: Students create new work during class or from assignments. 
  • Workshop: students submit work for critique from the teacher and class. 
  • Craft Discussion: teachers and students explore essential elements of the craft. 
  • Reading: Class engages in close study of one or more works. 
  • Sharing and receiving helpful feedback is optional. 
  • 1-2 hours of writing or reading outside of class. 

Students say… 

“I love Darien's approach to writing and teaching – I always leave with so much great content to work with and new insight into the stories I want to tell. The 10-minute free writing approach and micro essay focus really is a kind of magic!” 

“Darien's approach is wonderful, from her inventive, generative prompts to her encouraging, practical strategies for building a writing life. She was incredibly generous with sharing resources for further reading and writing, as well as with providing guidance about navigating the literary marketplace. I am really glad to have taken this class!” 

Registration Dates: 

  • November 19: Member registration opens at 10:30 am PT   
  • November 26: General registration opens at 10:30 am PT   
  • December 8: Last day of Early Bird discount  

This class is not eligible for a member discount. Learn more here »

Darien Gee

Darien Gee

she/her

Darien Hsu Gee is the author of five novels published by Penguin Random House that have been translated into eleven languages. In 2022, she served as executive editor for Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World. In 2021, her collection of micro essays, Allegiance, received the Bronze IPPY award (Essays). Her poetry chapbook, Other Small Histories, won the 2019 Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship award, judged by Patricia Smith. In 2015, she received the Hawaiʻi Book Publishers’ Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award of Excellence for her nonfiction book, Writing the Hawaiʻi Memoir. Darien lives with her family on the island of Hawaiʻi.

Websites: dariengee.com and writer-ish.com

Each class description includes a breakdown of what you can expect in terms of in-class activity, feedback, and homework (if any). 

Generative means you’ll be generating new writing, either in class or at home between classes.

Workshop means you’ll be sharing work to be read and critiqued by your instructor and classmates and that you will also be critiquing the work of your peers. 

Reading means you’ll be doing close reading of a work with an eye toward craft. 

Craft discussion means you’ll be looking at the tools writers use to do that thing they do so well and then trying it out yourself.

Class levels are designed for various stages of the writing journey. Simply self-select the level that sounds best for where you’re at. 

Introductory: This is your first creative writing workshop, first writing class since high school, or first foray into a new genre or form. You’re looking to try something new, kickstart your writing, and/or establish yourself in the fundamentals.

Intermediate: You have a strong understanding of writing fundamentals and are eager to deep dive into craft. You’re honing your writerly identity and voice through independent projects. In workshop, you look for constructive feedback and are ready to do writing and reading outside of class.

Advanced: You’ve written a significant body of work and have taken it through several stages of revision. You’re getting ready to publish or are in the early stage of publishing, and you’re interested in refining the skills that will take you to the next level in the literary industry.

All Levels: You are any of the above and are looking to play with new possibilities.

You’ll get your class information, including Zoom link if applicable, three days before the first day of class.

Write With Hugo House is our free monthly write-in program, operated in partnership with the Seattle Public Library. Two take place onsite at SPL locations, one takes place online. 

Sliding-scale classes are offered every quarter. Find them in our Class Catalog.

We announce flash sales, early bird periods, and special deals through our e-newsletter; sign up at the bottom of this page.

At this time, we offer payment plans on classes 8 sessions and up. Email education@hugohouse.org with the name of the class you’re interested in to set up a payment plan.

Our payment plan policy: 
  • We charge a 5% nonrefundable administrative fee for all payment plans. 
  • Extended payment plans up to 8 monthly installments and 16 semi-monthly installments are available upon request.
  • We are unable to hold seats for prospective payment plan students. Students will be enrolled once their first installment has been paid. 
  • If you need to cancel, Hugo House will issue refunds according to its cancellation and transfer policies. Your 5% nonrefundable admin fee will not be refunded. 
  • If you withdraw from a class after it begins, you will not receive a refund and are still responsible for paying the full course tuition.

Asynchronous classes are perfect for students that need flexibility!

During an asynchronous class, instructors release new lessons once per week. Students then have one week to complete that lesson and any accompanying coursework. You’ll learn as much as you would in a traditional class but with the flexibility to work at the best times for your schedule!

While there are no live sessions, asynchronous classes are still a lively and rigorous experience. Async classes are not static lessons but an adaptable and energetic community space. Be ready to work in a collaborative environment, giving and receiving feedback on your writing, participating in discussions, and growing your writing practice in a way that works best for you.

Asynchronous classes take place through the website Wet Ink. Students receive an invitation to the class and to set up a Wet Ink account on the start date of the class. Each week of the class, a new lesson will be available through the Wet Ink portal. Classes close two weeks after the end date, and students receive an email containing their content from the class when it closes.

Hugo House will only process refund requests that are submitted 5 business days or more before the class start date. To request a refund, log in to your account, go to “My Account,” select the “Orders” tab on the left-hand side, click the appropriate order, and request a refund for your specific class. Administrative fees apply. Please see our full refund policy here.

In general, we do not record classes. However, an exception if a student has specific access needs.

We encourage students to only sign up for classes that fit with their schedule.   

We do not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic or any other oppressive behaviors, regardless of who commits them. Please check out our full community guidelines by clicking here. If an instance of community guidelines are violated and not resolved within the classroom, students may let us know by filling out the student incident report.

If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, you’ll receive a full refund.

You can apply for a scholarship by clicking the red “Request a Scholarship” text on class pages. The scholarship request text is located at the top of each class page, underneath the “add to cart” button.

Hugo House members get to register early for classes – a full week before they open to the general public!, receive a 10% discount on events and classes, and more. See the full list of membership benefits here!

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If you’re interested in contributing your skills, Hugo House accepts volunteer applications for a variety of roles, including event support, administrative tasks, and more. Learn more on our Volunteer page.

Learn about all the ways to support Hugo House here.

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