The Writers Studio

In this six-week class, students are asked to write journal entries to address what they see as their most pressing ideas and stories, using a persona narrator. The use of a persona narrator gives students the distance and objectivity needed to address difficult subject matter, while the journal form, which is designed to be read by one oneself, provides a private, unselfconscious form that creates the illusion of privacy, allowing writers to set aside their fears about publishing and critical judgment. Once painful subjects are tamed, the transfer over to poems, stories and memories is made easier.

Techniques from established writers such as Franz Kafka, Peter Handke, Audre Lorde, John Cheever, Joan Didion and Edouard Louis or any of our more contemporary poets and writers are used to help motivate confidence and inspiration.

This class is a great opportunity for new writers to explore material that can be used in exercises in writing workshops or to craft stories and poems.