My friends, I’m offering a bunch of brand-new one- to three-day creative writing workshops in 2018. Topics include The Freedom of Form, Playing with Tense and Point of View, Writing through Pivotal Moments, and –for the first time ever– Creative Writing Boot Camp! Dates, descriptions and details can be found below. I’d love to see you in one of these workshops.
Brand-new upcoming creative writing workshops!
Saturday, May 5, 2018: The Freedom of Form
Location: Uptown Minneapolis
Time: 1-5 pm
Cost: $100, payable via personal check or this Paypal link.
When you’re stuck in a piece of writing, what do you do? Grind through, hoping desperately that a window will open? Give up? Take a break? Declare yourself a failure and slink off to drown your sorrows? I’ve taken a shot at all these methods, and none of them work as well for me as re-framing the work itself. I give myself seemingly arbitrary rules to work within, e.g., Write this scene as a series of text messages, or, Write this novel as a series of one-hundred-word passages. The freedom of assigned form is real, people, and it’s why novels usually have chapters, and picture books are usually under 500 words. It’s why enduring forms of poetry like haiku and sonnets and sestinas are still alive and thriving. In this workshop, which is designed for writer in all genres, we will play with form as a way to open up your writing, your mind and your heart to the freedom and creativity inherent in all art. We’ll complete some in-class writings, discuss published works and in general have a great and exhilarating time. Enrollment is limited to 15.
Sunday, May 6, 2018: Writing through Pivotal Points
Location: Uptown Minneapolis
Time: 1-5 pm
Cost: $100, payable via personal check or this Paypal link.
Life is a series of pivots and transitions, isn’t it? We’re young, we’re middle-aged, we’re elderly. We have babies and little kids and then suddenly those kids are grown. We work at one job, then another, then we choose a different path entirely. We are the same people we always were, but are we? In the course of our lives we absorb so many experiences and conversations, we witness such growth and change in ourselves and around us – we deepen and gain clarity and complexity as we live our lives. In this workshop, we will write from wherever you are, right now, in your life. Maybe you are new to parenthood, or maybe you’re preparing to take your child to college. Maybe you’re contemplating a return to school, or a former relationship, or a move to a new location. Maybe someone you loved completely –or complicatedly– has passed on from your life or this world. Are you wondering where your new place in this world is? Are you eager –or scared–to jump into the next phase? Do you want to acknowledge where you’ve come from and where you’re going? Writing through pivotal moments is a wondrous way to honor the stages of life. Come join us! In this workshop, which is designed for writer in all genres, we’ll complete some in-class writings, discuss published works and in general have a great and exhilarating time. Enrollment is limited to 15.
August 10, 11, and 12: Creative Writing Boot Camp!
Location: Uptown Minneapolis
Time: 9-5 pm daily
Cost: $500, payable via personal check or this Paypal link ($250 at time of registration and $250 due by July 1). See scholarship note below.
Are you someone who’s a) always wanted to write but hasn’t yet taken the plunge, b) already writing but looking for some refreshers, c) looking for an intensive few days of writing and learning in the comforting presence of kindred spirits, d) restless and searching and loves a challenge? Look no further! This three-day intensive workshop, designed for writer in all genres, is both an overview and hands-on exploration of creative writing technique. In our time together we’ll explain, review and work on various fundamental aspects of creative writing applicable across all genres, including character development, point of view, tense, chronology, poetic form and language, dialogue and narrative arc. Participants will complete several reading assignments before the start of the workshop. This workshop is intensive and consuming, and by the end of Day Three you’ll be both energized and exhilarated.
Note: If you’re flying in for the boot camp, there are many Airbnb units within walking distance, or an easy bus ride, from our Uptown classroom – no need to rent a car.
Scholarship: One $250 scholarship, based on financial need, is available for the boot camp. To apply, send me a sentence or two about your circumstances, and your name will be added to a list, with one name chosen randomly on May 1.
Saturday, November 17: Playing with Tense and Point of View
Location: Uptown Minneapolis
Time: 1-5 pm
Cost: $100, payable via personal check or this Paypal link.
Take a sentence. This one, for example: “Dark shapes of skiers flitted past, and the old man kept walking.” Now rewrite it in the present tense: “Dark shapes of skiers flit past, and the old man keeps walking.” Hear the difference? Now try a different point of view, future tense, second person: “Dark shapes of skiers will flit past, and you will keep walking.” Using another tense or point of view can subtly or dramatically change a sentence, a paragraph, a book. Attuning your ear to the gradations of emotion as expressed in the cadence of tense and point of view helps expand your writerly horizons. This workshop, which is designed for writer in all genres, uses lecture, writing exercises, and discussion of published examples to help you gain a better command of these powerful tools. Enrollment is limited to 15.
Sunday, November 18: The Freedom of Form
Location: Uptown Minneapolis
Time: 1-5 pm
Cost: $100, payable via personal check or this Paypal link.
When you’re stuck in a piece of writing, feeling lifeless, what do you do? Grind through, hoping desperately that a window will open? Give up? Take a break? Declare yourself a failure and slink off to drown your sorrows? I’ve taken a shot at all these methods, and none of them work as well for me as re-framing the work itself. I give myself seemingly arbitrary rules to work within, e.g., Write this scene as a series of text messages, or, Write this novel as a series of one-hundred-word passages. The freedom of assigned form is real, people, and it’s why novels usually have chapters, and picture books are usually under 500 words. It’s why enduring forms of poetry like haiku and sonnets and sestinas are still alive and thriving. In this workshop, which is designed for writer in all genres, we will play with form as a way to open up your writing, your mind and your heart to the freedom and creativity inherent in all art. We’ll complete some in-class writings, discuss published works and in general have a great and exhilarating time. Enrollment is limited to 15.
Minnesotans! I’m offering three free workshops this spring on the transformation of trauma. 
I’m thinking of the man in the white shirt and the black pants, the one holding a briefcase, who stepped in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square and stood there. I’m thinking of the girl in the long dress, the one who slid a flower into the barrel of the gun the officer had trained on her. I’m thinking of the woman who began a conversation with and ended up becoming a second mother to the boy who murdered her own son. I’m thinking of this tiny beautiful prayer by Danez Smith. A new year to all. May ruin end here.
“It was a time like this. . . when all things fall apart.”
Thirty years ago I stood in a kitchen reading through a letter of complaint sent to a business about one of their products. “Oh my God,” I remember saying. “Whoever wrote this letter is a horrible speller. And the grammar? Jeez!” Then I turned the page over and looked at the signature. And realized that the letter had been written by someone I loved, someone who had worked incredibly hard their whole life long, someone who could always be counted on to help, someone who was right there in the room. 
A house I used to live in was filled with a dark and ominous energy that I felt every time I approached the front door. When I dreamed, dark birds hovered silently in the air around me, landing on my shoulders and head. The dark birds wanted me — they wanted me dead. I lived in a state of permanent exhaustion, surrounded by the forces of darkness. 
Hey there, elected employees, thanks for an especially sickening week. Proud of yourselves and your ongoing attempts to destroy our democracy? 
My new novel 
Alison McGhee 