Can't Join Live? Replays Available!

POINT OF VIEW AS PLAY AND PRACTICE
Taught by Sheree L. Greer
Sunday, May 28
2-4 pm ET on Zoom

In this single-session workshop, writers will explore point of view as both a craft element and an opportunity for play and practice. Through interactive readings, discussion, and writing exercises, writers will examine point of view as a portal of exploration in their prose and their creative practice.

DELUSIONS OF GRAMMAR
Taught by Sara Levine
Sunday, June 25
2-4 pm ET on Zoom

“All I know about grammar is its infinite power,” Joan Didion wrote, and if that sends a shiver of curiosity up and down your spine, welcome to my workshop! This one-day class is a high-energy exploration of the rhetoric of grammar: how to think strategically about form. We’ll look at how writers make decisions when they confront a sentence: the patterns sentences typically follow and the different ways clauses hang together. By the class’s end, you’ll be able to diagnose what makes a sentence boring and tweak it until it has more suspense than a Netflix thriller. 

YOU, INC.: BUILDING YOUR WRITING BRAND
Taught by Jen Mathy
Sunday, July 23
2-4 pm ET on Zoom

This masterclass will demystify marketing. We’ll talk about your small-business “must-haves,” use literary examples to illustrate the differences among social media platforms, and look at best practices across the literary community. We’ll do exercises to get you thinking about yourself as a brand and discuss ways to weave brand-building into your writing practice.

URGENCY AND THE PERSONAL ESSAY
Taught by Megan Stielstra
Sunday, August 20
2-4 pm ET on Zoom

This lightning-bolt session begins with the gut. What you need to tell; the memories, fascinations, and questions that live not in your head but your bones. Then: craft—how to tell our personal stories in ways that are equally urgent to an audience. Pulling from both literary and oral storytelling traditions, we’ll engage in activities (adapted for Zoom!) to get our experiences out of the body and onto the page, encouraging risk and discovery and examining literary craft in new ways. How does telling a story aloud heighten our understanding of its structure? How does the presence of an immediate audience influence the rewriting process? What does it mean to build an individual writing process that will sustain us without the support of a class? 

POINT OF VIEW AS PLAY AND PRACTICE

Taught by Sheree L. Greer

Sunday, May 28

2-4 pm ET on Zoom

Can't join live? Replays Available!

$60 a la carte single workshop

In this single-session workshop, writers will explore point of view as both a craft element and an opportunity for play and practice. Through interactive readings, discussion, and writing exercises, writers will examine point of view as a portal of exploration in their prose and their creative practice.

——————

 

ShereeL. Greer is a writer living in Tampa, Florida. She is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, and a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers. Her work has been published in LezTalk Anthology, VerySmartBrothas, Autostraddle, The Windy City Times, and the Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches from the Third Coast. Sheree is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea grantee, as well as a Yaddo and Ragdale Fellow. Her essay, "Bars" published in Fourth Genre Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and notably named in Best American Essays 2019.

DELUSIONS OF GRAMMAR

Taught by Sara Levine

Sunday, June 25

2-4 pm ET on Zoom

Can't join live? Replays available!

$60 a la carte single workshop

“All I know about grammar is its infinite power,” Joan Didion wrote, and if that sends a shiver of curiosity up and down your spine, welcome to my workshop! This one-day class is a high-energy exploration of the rhetoric of grammar: how to think strategically about form. We’ll look at how writers make decisions when they confront a sentence: the patterns sentences typically follow and the different ways clauses hang together. By the class’s end, you’ll be able to diagnose what makes a sentence boring and tweak it until it has more suspense than a Netflix thriller. 

What you’ll get from the class:

● One immersive real-time meeting with your instructor and cohort

● A new sensitivity to grammar and how it can serve you as a writer

● Detailed explanations of how to mess around with grammar on the ground (as opposed to 

memorizing rules about split infinitives or dangling participles)

● Short and never tedious exercises to move the grammar lessons out of your head and into 

your hand

● A Further Reading List, should you decide to fully embrace your grammatical power

 

Sara Levine is the author of the novel Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She has a Ph.D. from Brown University, where she was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, and has taught at the University of Iowa as well as The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her nonfiction has been anthologized in The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: 1970 to the Present; Essayists on the Essay: Montaigne to Our Time; and Understanding the Essay. You can find out more about her at sara-levine.com

YOU, INC.: BUILDING YOUR WRITING BRAND

Taught by Jen Mathy

Sunday, July 23

2-4 pm ET on Zoom

Can't join live? Replays available!

$60 a la carte single workshop

You write. You revise. And with a little perseverance, you publish. Now it’s up to the journal to attract readers. Your piece will, naturally, reach the desk of a literary agent who is brought to tears by the quiet restraint of your unquestionable genius. She immediately lands you a book deal at a Big 5 publisher who dedicates bajillions (yes, bajillions) to market your work. There’s a book tour, a Times review, and a viral video of Oprah personally – and lovingly – applying stickers to your book jacket. Neat!

The reality is that journals, presses, and publishers often lack the resources to market your work. A successful writer needs to think of themselves as an entrepreneur, a business partner, a brand, and a literary citizen. It’s daunting for many writers, but promoting yourself and your work can be accomplished though small, mindful tasks. And, it may lead to freelance assignments, commissions, teaching gigs, agents, even that book deal.

This masterclass will demystify marketing. We’ll talk about your small-business “must-haves,” use literary examples to illustrate the differences among social media platforms, and look at best practices across the literary community. We’ll do exercises to get you thinking about yourself as a brand and discuss ways to weave brand-building into your writing practice.

Participants will be emailed brand-building checklists and handouts at the end of the class. 

 

Jen Mathy is a marketing communications consultant in social media, PR, and advertising. She was VP of advertising and brand management for Morgan Stanley, brand manager for Discover Card, and in university relations for NorthwETern University. She managed social media for Bennington Writing Seminars, and served as a consultant for both the Hurston-Wright Foundation and the Maurice Sendak Foundation. She currently manages social media for Cleaver Magazine. Jen has an MFA in Writing from Bennington College. She has written stories for The Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV, among others, and wrote the poetry and prose for “An Expat Journey in Singapore,” a book of photography about the island nation.

URGENCY AND THE PERSONAL ESSAY

Taught by Megan Stielstra

Sunday, August 20

2-4 pm ET on Zoom

Can't join live? Replays available!

$60 a la carte single workshop

This lightning-bolt session begins with the gut. What you need to tell; the memories, fascinations, and questions that live not in your head but your bones. Then: craft—how to tell our personal stories in ways that are equally urgent to an audience. Pulling from both literary and oral storytelling traditions, we’ll engage in activities (adapted for Zoom!) to get our experiences out of the body and onto the page, encouraging risk and discovery and examining literary craft in new ways. How does telling a story aloud heighten our understanding of its structure? How does the presence of an immediate audience influence the rewriting process? What does it mean to build an individual writing process that will sustain us without the support of a class? 

Writers and storytellers at all levels are welcome. The work we’ll do is useful both in generating new material and digging deeper into stories you’ve been wrestling with for years. Need to jumpstart an ongoing project? Need to finalize a manuscript for submission/publication? Need to get this story out of your body so you don't have to carry it anymore? Let’s make it happen.

 

Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, the Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. Her work appears in the BET American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, Guernica, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Theatre, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor-at-large with Northwestern University Press.

DELUSIONS OF GRAMMAR

Taught by Sara Levine

Sunday, June 25

2-4 pm ET on Zoom

Can't join live? Replays available!

$60 a la carte single workshop

“All I know about grammar is its infinite power,” Joan Didion wrote, and if that sends a shiver of curiosity up and down your spine, welcome to my workshop! This one-day class is a high-energy exploration of the rhetoric of grammar: how to think strategically about form. We’ll look at how writers make decisions when they confront a sentence: the patterns sentences typically follow and the different ways clauses hang together. By the class’s end, you’ll be able to diagnose what makes a sentence boring and tweak it until it has more suspense than a Netflix thriller. 

What you’ll get from the class:

● One immersive real-time meeting with your instructor and cohort

● A new sensitivity to grammar and how it can serve you as a writer

● Detailed explanations of how to mess around with grammar on the ground (as opposed to 

memorizing rules about split infinitives or dangling participles)

● Short and never tedious exercises to move the grammar lessons out of your head and into 

your hand

● A Further Reading List, should you decide to fully embrace your grammatical power

 

Sara Levine is the author of the novel Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She has a Ph.D. from Brown University, where she was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, and has taught at the University of Iowa as well as The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her nonfiction has been anthologized in The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: 1970 to the Present; Essayists on the Essay: Montaigne to Our Time; and Understanding the Essay. You can find out more about her at sara-levine.com

LET THE SUNSHINE IN: WRITING AND REVISING WITH JOY

Taught by Andrea Caswell

Tuesdays, May 23, 30; June 6, 13, 20

12-2 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$275

Many of us come to writing because we love language-play as a form of expression and self-discovery. As our work begins to take shape, however, high expectations and fears may creep in, taking the pleasure and playfulness from an activity we'd otherwise enjoy. In this five-week class, writers will use prompts and exercises to either begin a new piece or continue with work ready for revision. In Week 3, feedback from the instructor will be offered on up to 1500 words as students revise. Naomi Shihab Nye has said, “If we connect a sense of joy with our writing, we may be inclined to explore further.” The goal of this “writing adventure” is to experience the inherent joy of creative writing while seeing a short piece through to completion. Part of the final session will be devoted to a class reading to celebrate community and the generosity of sharing our work with others.
 

 

Andrea Caswell’s writing has been published widely in print and online. Her work appears or is forthcoming inTampa Review,River Teeth,The Normal School,Columbia Journal,Atticus Review, and others. She holds a master’s from Harvard University and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She’s a fiction editor forCleaver Magazine, and is the founder of Lime Street Writers, a monthly workshop north of Boston. In 2019 her fiction was accepted to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. A native of Los Angeles, Andrea now lives and teaches in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Contact her atwww.andreacaswell.com.

THE ART OF FLASH NONFICTION

Taught by Sydney Tammarine and Kathryn Kulpa

May 24 through June 24

Asynchronous, with optional Zoom write-ins and discussions on some Sundays, 1–2 PM ET

Class limit: 14

$300

In this class, we will explore flash nonfiction: a form like a lightbulb “eureka!” merging the personal “I” of memoir with the seeing “eye” of essay. We’ll discuss key questions of creative nonfiction—writing the tough stuff, finding your truth, bringing characters (including the self) to life—and consider how these translate to the compressed space of flash. 

Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example essays and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback. Students are welcome to bring in works-in-progress or to generate new writing during this workshop.

This workshop has weekly readings and writing assignments to inspire you—and deadlines to motivate you—but the work can be done at your own pace and on your own time. There are no required meetings, although we’ll hold optional Zoom write-ins and discussions for those who are interested. We welcome both new and experienced writers looking for motivation, structure, and enthusiastic feedback on their work.

 

Kathryn Kulpa was a winner of the Vella Chapbook Contest for her flash chapbook Girls on Film (Paper Nautilus) and has had work selected for inclusion inBest Microfiction2020 and 2021 (Pelekinesis Press).  Her flash fiction is published or forthcoming in Flash Frog, 100 Word Story, Monkeybicycle, Smokelong Quarterly, and Wigleaf, and she serves as chief flash editor for Cleaver Magazine. Kathryn has been a visiting writer at Wheaton College and has led writing workshops at the University of Rhode Island, the Stonecoast Writers Conference at the University of Southern Maine, Writefest in Houston, Texas, and at public libraries throughout Rhode Island.

 

Sydney Tammarine‘s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and other journals. Her essay “Blue Hour” was selected as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2021. She is the translator of two collections of poetry by Christian Formoso: The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile / El cementerio más hermoso de Chile and Pavilion of the Names / Pabellón de los nombres (Cuadernos de Casa Bermeja in Argentina and MAGO Editores in Chile). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and is Associate Professor of English at New Mexico Military Institute. You can find her at www.sydneytammarine.com.

THE MODALITY OF MANIA: Writing Compassionately and Truthfully About Mental Illness and Pain

Taught by Sam Heaps

Thursdays, June 8, 15, 22, 29; July 6, 13

6-8 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$250

Our favorite characters aren’t usually perfect people. Instead, they’re often individuals who are hurt and hurting in equal measure. They’re people in situations they’re not prepared for, in environments that don’t suit them, trying every day to make the best decisions they can, given their circumstances. The characters we love most are usually the ones that remind us of the most of ourselves, all of our own contradictions mirrored back to us on the page. 

How do we write about the most hurt and hurting, without stepping away and dehumanizing these characters by othering them, or glorifying them in the “antihero” tradition that is currently so popular? How can we do justice to the complexities of the human experience when writing narrative, a form of art that requires certain conventions such as plot and conflict, which are designed to pit our most beloved creations against each other? How do we depict the truth of our real mental conditions — writing characters whose interior and dialogue express the reality of a confused brain and body. How do we express thinking patterns that go beyond the neurotypical? And how do we compassionately depict our most painful experiences, without getting sucked back into them?

In this class, we will study writers such as Han Kang, Anna Kavan, Terese Marie Mailhot, Qiu Miaojin, and Chantel V Johnson. I, of course, have my own experiences and interests, so I will solicit texts from students as well which draw from your own fears and obsessions. We will work together to create a safe and respectful environment to grapple together, and we should all expect to learn from one another. This will be a generative class and through prompts and investigation, we will be working towards telling new stories that challenge us. 

 

Sam Heaps (they/them) is a genderqueer writer, organizer, and visual artist with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Heaps’ debut essay collection, Proximity, was released from CLASH Books in 2023. They have received support from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the NES Artist Residency, and Tin House. Heaps teaches writing at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

READING LIKE A WRITER: Learning Craft and Finding Inspiration in What We Read

Taught by Ilana Masad

Sundays, July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

3-5 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 15

$250

This course will focus on learning how to read like a writer (or practicing and strengthening the ways you might already be doing so!). While we’ll be reading fiction exclusively in this class, the reality is that writers of all genres can benefit and learn from reading all genres. 

Over the course of the five weeks of this workshop, we will read ten short stories (and potentially a craft essay or two) and discuss them in class. We will also spend some time each class generating new writing and stretching our craft muscles by using some assigned prompts as well as prompts that we’ll create together in our shared space. This class won’t include direct feedback, but writers will be encouraged to share their responses to prompts so we can learn from one another, listen to one another, and discover the ways we approach and think about craft differently. 

In addition to thinking about craft, we will also consider the “understory” of the stories we read: the political, aesthetic, emotional, and thematic elements of the text and their effect on and interplay with the craft of the piece. Writers needn’t have complete or polished writing to take this class but should be willing to read deeply and thoroughly as well as take part in class discussions. The goal of this class is to strengthen, broaden, and deepen the way we read so that we can strengthen, broaden, and deepen the way we write. I firmly believe that reading is one of the best and mostimportant teachers of writing, and I hope that students will be able to carry the writerly close reading we’ll practice into their daily lives and future writing.

 

Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, NPR, StoryQuarterly, Tin House’s Open Bar, 7x7, Catapult, Buzzfeed, and many more. Masad is the author of the novel All My Mother’s Lovers. 

BREAKING UP WITH FORM:

Experimental Essays

Taught by Tricia Park

Sundays, July 9, 16, 23, 30; August 6

12-2 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$300

“Creative nonfiction” is an expansive genre of writing that encompasses a range of styles and techniques to tell life stories. Whether you’re telling a story for the first or hundredth time, it can be in this retelling that we are able to rearrange time, reconsider the nuances of memory, and begin to reorganize the turmoil of the past. Beginning with the origins of the word, “essay,”—from the French essayer, or to try—we will explore: How can form help us better tell our stories? How can choosing the right container illuminate our essays’ contents? And how can contemporary forms free up our stories and reflect the complex nature of memory? 

Each week, we will explore different essay forms, discuss how these forms impact the reader’s experience of the essay, and experiment as we borrow and integrate new techniques in our own writing. The class will offer weekly readings, writing prompts, and feedback on your writing. 

In this class you will:

● Experiment with prompts and strategies

● Read inventive essay examples

● Generate new writing

● Receive instructor and classmate feedback

 

Tricia Park is a concert violinist, writer, and educator. Since making her concert debut at age thirteen, Tricia has performed on five continents and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is the host and producer of an original podcast called, “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Tricia has served on faculty at the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa, and has worked for Graywolf Press. She is the co-lead of the Chicago chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that seeks to empower women and non-binary writers. She is a Juilliard graduate and received her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2021, Tricia was awarded a Fulbright Grant to Seoul, Korea, where she worked on a literary and musical project. Her writing has appeared in Cleaver Magazine and F Newsmagazine. She was also a finalist for contests in C&R Press and The Rumpus. Tricia has served on faculty at the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa and has worked for Graywolf Press. She is the co-lead of the Chicago chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that seeks to empower women and non-binary writers. Currently, Tricia is Associate Director of Cleaver Magazine Workshops where she is also a Creative Nonfiction editor and faculty instructor, teaches for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and maintains a private studio of violin students and writing clients.

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME:

The Flash Collection and Flash Novella

Taught by Kathryn Kulpa

July 9 through August 12

Asynchronous; optional Zoom meetings to be scheduled when works best for class members

Class limit: 12

$300

In this workshop, we'll look at how flash and micro-length pieces can be combined in longer work: flash collections, flash novellas or memoirs, and hybrid collections. We will read examples of these genres and ask: what binds these stories together? How do they inform each other? How do they form a whole? In addition to reading and discussing works together, each student will choose a flash collection to analyze and present to the group. We will also work on putting together collections of our own, looking for connecting threads in our stories and finding the best form to group them together. 

This workshop is designed for experienced flash writers who are working on putting together a collection, novella, or memoir and would like a place to talk about both individual pieces and the work as a whole. You should start with at least three stories that you think go together, but there will be room to experiment and grow along the way. 

 

Kathryn Kulpa was a winner of the Vella Chapbook Contest for her flash chapbookGirls on Film(Paper Nautilus) and has had work selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction 2020 and 2021 (Pelekinesis Press).  Her flash fiction is published or forthcoming in Flash Frog, 100 Word Story, Monkeybicycle, Smokelong Quarterly, andWigleaf, and she serves as chief flash editor forCleaver Magazine. Kathryn has been a visiting writer at Wheaton College and has led writing workshops at the University of Rhode Island, the Stonecoast Writers Conference at the University of Southern Maine, Writefest in Houston, Texas, and at public libraries throughout Rhode Island.

THE ART OF RESEARCH

Taught by Amanda Dee

Mondays, July 31; August 7, 14, 21

7-9 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$200

Research can be daunting to creative writers without a background in it; still, those with research backgrounds can struggle to pluck the details from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages or hours of material that will transform their work from research paper to art.

The goal of this class is to demystify research in the creative process, by making “traditional” modes of research—including interviewing and archive-digging – more accessible and by expanding definitions of research. For one essay or poem, your archive of texts with your mother may be your source. For another: a museum’s archive of photographs by mothers. Maybe your essay or poem calls for both. Despite its reputation, I believe research is personal. What we choose or don’t choose to pursue and why is an insight into who we are on the page – and who we are.

All students, regardless of experience level, will leave confident, or at least more comfortable, with using research as a craft tool and to begin to see the endless ways research can open up their writing to new possibilities. Through short weekly readings provided by the instructor, we will consider how writers interpret research and incorporate it into their work. You will receive weekly writing or revision prompts, and peer and instructor feedback on your writing, including an optional one-on-one meeting with the instructor. Students will also leave the class with a list of research resources for future writing, most of which will be free and publicly available. Although we will focus primarily on memoir and the essay in this class, writers of poetry and hybrid forms are encouraged to join. We will turn to all these forms in our collective investigation.

 

Amanda Dee is a writer and apparition of the Midwest. She has nearly a decade of experience researching diverse subject matter – ranging from university sexual assault policies to biomarkers of early-stage Parkinson’s disease to puppets—for publication and production. She writes for Sixty Inches from Center, an online arts publication and archiving initiative in Chicago that primarily centers art and writing outside of the mainstream. As the former editor-in-chief of Dayton City Paper, the alt-weekly in Dayton, Ohio, she directed coverage of news, arts, and culture in the region. She also served as the associate producer of the oral history podcast Moral Courage Radio: Ferguson Voices, which documented perspectives from the Ferguson community in the wake of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown. Currently, she is working on a collection of personal essays for her MFA in creative nonfiction thesis at Northwestern University and is a reader for the literary journal TriQuarterly. She has two cats who were born without tails, a phenomenon she has also researched. By day, she works at a medical school. Find her work here.

WRITING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

Taught by Suzanne Scanlon

Tuesdays, Aug 1, 8, 15, 22

6-8 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$300

Many writers use photographs- real or imagined- to inspire and create scene and story. Whether you are writing a travel essay, a memoir, or a personal essay, you likely have some personal photographs that come immediately to mind: photographs that you’ve held onto for years--perhaps one is over your desk or on your refrigerator or tucked away in a box or scrapbook. In this class, we will work with these photographs, writing through and beyond, asking what power these images hold, and how can we transform, translate, or transmute the image to the page. You will create a series of short prose pieces, ending the weekend with an image-based project.

 

Suzanne Scanlon is the author of two works of fiction, Promising Young Women and Her 37th Year, An Index. Her critical memoir, Committed, will be published by Vintage / Anchor Books in 2024. She has published fiction and nonfiction in such publications as Granta, The Iowa Review, Fence, BOMB Magazine, and Electric Literature. She holds an MFA from Northwestern University and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute Chicago.

PLAYING TOWARD POETIC FORM

Taught by Alex Wells Shapiro

Wednesdays, August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

7-9 pm ET on Zoom

Class limit: 12

$200

While the shift from formal to free verse poetry in popular lit culture has liberated many writers to explore form more fully, it’s siloed conversations about the function and aesthetic of the line break. This occurrence in a culture that has more broadly deprioritized poetry in education has led to fewer opportunities for people to play with language and the space of the page in environments without consequence of grades or rigid peer critique. This workshop will encourage such play through generative found poetry activities where the participants will make and find poetry within noncreative texts. These opportunities to discuss how poetry is derived will be paired with readings of poets utilizing breaks and page space in dynamic ways, from the subtle, simple lines of Darius Simpson and Victoria Chang, to Dianne Suess and Terrance Hayes’s remakings of the sonnet, to Mary Szybist’s poems dancing across the page with varying concreteness. This will be a good space for beginners and advanced writers hoping to reattune themselves to basics. 

In this workshop you will:

● Play with language in ways that could lead to a poem

● Read and discuss work from at least 5 contemporary poets

● Generate at least two new poems

● Workshop poems with classmates

 

Alex Wells Shapiro (he/him) is a poet, artist, and organizer from the Hudson Valley, living in Chicago. Northeastern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago gave him degrees. He serves as Poetry Editor for Another Chicago Magazine, and co-curates Exhibit B: A Literary Variety Show. His poems have been published in Cleaver, Vassar Review, Fourteen Hills, Fatal Flaw, The Under Review, and elsewhere, and are forthcoming in The Spectacle and Laurel Review He is the author of a full-length collection of poems, Insect Architecture (Unbound Edition 2022), and a chapbook, Gridiron Fables (Bottlecap Features 2022). More of his work can be found at www.alexwellsshapiro.com

 

SHORT STORY CLINIC
with Andrea Caswell

One-on-one personal feedback for your story. 

Fiction writer and editor Andrea Caswell will read your short story (up to 5000 words) and offer constructive written feedback regarding what’s working, what needs attention, and how to improve in key craft areas. Feedback will be returned within 21 days; expedited turnaround also available. You may add an optional video conference with Andrea to discuss your work further and ask questions about the next steps for revision.

Submission Guidelines
-Story Clinic is open to all fiction writers
-5000 words maximum
-You may include specific questions for feedback in the cover letter section when you submit
-Category may close if editors’ capacity is reached; it will reopen the following month

Cost
-One short story 1K – 3000 words: $100
-One short story 3K – 5000 words: $150
-Optional 30-minute video or phone conference: add $50
-Expedited two-week turnaround: add $50
 
For more details see: https://www.cleavermagazine.com/workshops/

Creative Nonfiction Clinic

With Sydney Tammarine

Here is your opportunity for one-on-one editorial feedback on a work-in-progress.

Whether you have an essay near completion to submit to journals or programs, or have written a draft and don’t know what to do next, an experienced editor will offer the guidance and encouragement necessary to realize your best work.

Creative nonfiction writer and editor Sydney Tammarine will read your essay (up to 4000 words) and offer constructive written feedback regarding what’s working, what needs attention, and how to improve in key craft areas. Feedback will be returned within 21 days; expedited turnaround is also available. You may add an optional video conference with Sydney to discuss your work further and ask questions about next steps for revision.

Submission Guidelines
- Creative Nonfiction Clinic is open to all nonfiction writers
- 5500 words maximum
- Please double-space your manuscript and use Times New Roman or a similar font
- You may include specific questions for feedback in the cover letter section when you submit
- Category may close if editors’ capacity is reached; it will reopen the following month

Note: this is a paid service. If you wish to submit your work for consideration for publication, please use the Creative Nonfiction category.

Cost

$100 for up to 2500 words

$150 for up to 4000 words

$200 for up to 5500 words

$50 add-on for a 30-minute Zoom consultation

$50 add-on for an expedited 2-week turnaround

Please upload documents in any genre only if your work was personally requested by one of the Cleaver editors. In the cover letter field, let us know which editor solicited your work and include a brief bio statement.

Submit up to 5 poems in a single document. If you need to withdraw one or more poems in the batch, don't email our editor. 

Instructions for single-poem withdraws:

1. Log into your Submittable account and go to your Submissions tab.

2. Click on the Activity tab. 

3. In the text box tell us which poem(s) you are withdrawing.

Submit micro-fiction (up to 700 words). Manuscripts should be single-spaced. 

  Submit micro nonfiction or short essays (up to 700 words). Manuscripts should be single-spaced. 

You may pay a voluntary submission fee to expedite our reading of your manuscript. Payment does not increase your chances for acceptance, but it does go a long way to help us sustain our quarterly magazine filled with thwackingly fine cutting-edge fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork.

$25 receive an expedited reading with a guaranteed response (accept or decline) within two weeks.

Submit stories up to 4000 words. Manuscripts should be single-spaced. 

You may pay a voluntary submission fee to expedite our reading of your manuscript. Payment does not increase your chances for acceptance, but it does go a long way to help us sustain our quarterly magazine filled with thwackingly fine cutting-edge fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork.

$25 submissions will receive an expedited reading with a guaranteed response (accept or decline) within two weeks (generally faster and often in less than one week.) 

Submit micro-fiction or short essays (up to 900 words). Manuscripts should be single-spaced. 

You may pay a voluntary submission fee to expedite our reading of your manuscript. Payment does not increase your chances for acceptance, but it does go a long way to help us sustain our quarterly magazine filled with thwackingly fine cutting-edge fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork.

$25 submissions will receive an expedited reading with a guaranteed response (accept or decline) within two weeks (generally faster and often in less than one week.) 

Submit creative nonfiction) up to 3000 words. Manuscripts should be single-spaced.

You may pay a voluntary submission fee to expedite our reading of your manuscript. Payment does not increase your chances for acceptance, but it does go a long way to help us sustain our quarterly magazine filled with thwackingly fine cutting-edge fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork.

Paid expedited  submissions will receive an expedited reading with a guaranteed response (accept or decline) within two weeks (generally faster and often in less than one week.) 

Submit up to 5 poems in a single document. If you need to withdraw one or more poems in the batch:

1. Log into your Submittable account and go to your Submissions tab.

2. Click on the Activity tab. 

3. In the text box tell us which poem(s) you are withdrawing.

$10.00 submissions will receive a response within two weeks. 

Do you love to read contemporary fiction? Poetry? Essays? Are you a literary tastemaker? Cleaver needs readers and editors whose sensibilities click with our own to help us thwack! through our growing submissions pile and to copyedit and proofread the pieces we accept. 

Editorial interns read and vote on submissions, help us proofread the issue before it goes live, and have the opportunity to work with a senior Cleaver editor to write a book review for publication. Time commitment: 5-10 hours/week. We can work with your college or university to provide academic credit for a semester-long internship at Cleaver. 

We consider editorial internship applications on a rolling basis. Fall internships run September–December, spring internships January–April, and summer internships May–August. If you have not yet received a response to your application, it is under consideration for the upcoming term.

If you are past the "intern" stage and would like to be considered for our editorial staff, use the editorial internship application, but let us know in your cover letter that you are applying to be part of our regular staff. We often ask potential regular staff to complete an internship with us first, just to make sure we are a good fit for one another.

Here's how to apply:

• Upload your resume and a creative writing sample in the main genre you'd like to work with. Let us know other relevant skills including your familiarity with web platforms, and other tools. (Don't worry, technical savvy is not a prerequisite, but if you have it, we're thrilled to know.)
• Write a cover letter telling us about yourself and why you'd like to be on the Cleaver team. Be sure to explain which genres you're comfortable evaluating and editing.