Sunday, December 14th, 2025

Live Seminar via Zoom from 2:30PM - 5:30PM EST

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us. 

Elissa Bassist is the editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus and the author of Hysterical, a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus, Elissa has written cultural and personal criticism since the website launched in 2009. INSIDE JOKES, a humor writing craft book, co-written with Caitlin Kunkel, is forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing in 2026. Elissa teaches humor writing at The New School and elsewhere, and she is probably her therapist’s favorite. 

Get to know Elissa in our Meet the Teaching Artist series.

Do you want to learn how to be funny about anything? Do you want to be funnier in writing, in general? Do you want to expand your skills as an artist? This is the seminar for you. Tragedy plus time equals comedy, and in this seminar on "traumedy" we'll do that math and turn your sob stories into publishable, entertaining writing though readings, lecture, discussion, brainstorming, writing exercises, and infinite handouts on what every traumedy needs.

To paraphrase Joan Rivers: Your own suffering has the potential to be very funny. And to poorly paraphrase a lot of writers: Art is the opportunity to turn the worst things that have happened to you into the funniest. People listen to a joke when they ignore a sob story or think piece or rant, so in this class we’ll rework tragedy to trick readers into listening to us, even into understanding us.

We’ll read other sad-funny writers to steal their tricks. We’ll cover every known device to turn a diary entry into publishable writing. We’ll cry as a group (optional). This class is perfect for writers who work across genres (fiction, nonfiction, humor, serious) or want to learn how.

Our ultimate goal will be to make readers laugh while PUNCHING THEM IN THE HEART.

Preparation and workload: Read (and love) Hysterical (if you want). There will be handouts (to be referenced during classes) and brainstorming and writing exercises (to be done in class). Elissa will provide PDFs of essays by Samantha Irby, Daniel Lavery, Melissa Border, and more.

STUDENTS WILL LEARN:

• How to move one's gaze up from the navel and engage readers
• What comedic tools are and how to use them
• What an essay is and how to write one
• How to find the comedy in tragedy and the depth in lightness
• How to write and joke about anything with confidence

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

• You're an aspiring memoirist, essayist, storyteller, or comedy writer
• You want to infuse humor into your writing, emails, dating profiles, etc.
• You want to learn how to tell difficult stories with new angles, new structure, new points of view, new tones of voice, new tropes, new writing approaches, and new deodorant