24PearlStreet Workshop List

So, you want to write a novel but you're terrified of the blank page. Or you've started your novel and are unsure about how to proceed. This is the class for you. In this four week intensive course we will examine how to dive into a novel. We will...More

In this course we will assess the stranger aesthetic virtues of poems we—and the rest of the world—are writing now.  Without disavowing the values of form, clarity, logical coherence, and so many other key terms of the workshop that represent the...More

What often keeps our competent poems from becoming captivating ones is a fear of failure, an instinctual aversion to risk. In this class, we’ll work at unlearning this impulse, priming ourselves to jump headlong into what we’ve previously side-...More

Where is the line between memoir and fiction? How much can you fabricate in memoir, and how much can you steal from your own life in fiction? In this workshop, students will submit their work---whether it's fiction, memoir, or a hybrid---for...More

You mention Immortality. That is the Flood subject.” – Emily Dickinson in a letter to T. W. Higginson Writing a poem is not a logical act, and it behooves us now and again to ask ourselves: Why are we writing poems in the first place? Many of us...More

"The Big Project" accountability Work Group is meant for writers who want to make headway on their fiction manuscript. Whether you are working towards a first draft of a novel or novella, or are beginning the process of revising your manuscript,...More

"The Big Project" accountability Work Group is meant for writers who want to make headway on their poetry manuscript. Whether you are working towards a first draft of a chapbook or full-length collection, or are beginning the process of revising...More

This Work Group is a workshop-style group. It is meant for writers who want regular feedback on their drafts, and who are committed to providing critiques for their fellow writers. Whether you are in generative or revision mode, the primary goal of...More

It is really hard to write funny.  It’s even harder to write funny with substance and pathos.  But in this class, we’ll look at several poems that succeed at being funny in different ways  - some by unlikely juxtapositions, some by satire, some...More

Writing a poem—that is, inventing and manipulating our language to compose it—can be likened to lucid dreaming.  In this course, you will learn to write poems as if dreaming lucidly, which means that you will learn to write with intention and...More

In this 8-week master class in poetry, we will focus on ways in which the work of both canonical and contemporary poets can help us generate new work and hone revision strategies. By approaching William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Bishop, Yusef...More

What makes a sentence so powerful and enduring that it will stick in your mind forever?  In this four-week class, we’ll take a look at some beautiful sentences and try to figure out exactly what makes them work, what distinguishes a writer’s style...More

Sometimes, starting a poem, I feel paralyzed by the task. Each time I need to find the way around my expectations, over the seemingly unsurmountable traditions and the already-trod reactions against tradition, under the deep sea of …whatever—you get...More

It’s easy to resist revision as the “work” part of creating—but when you embrace it fully as part of the creative process, your writing will start to go to new levels.  Real revision is bold and daring.  It demands that you get into the guts of your...More

Reading and writing Very Short Stories can teach us several basic lessons of fiction writing, including the art of omission, compression, economy, and urgency. Whether you’re already part of the current Very Short Story renaissance or plan to use...More