Wednesday, August 12th, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 PM EST

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

Instructor Bio

Instructor Minda Honey's (she/her) essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper's Bazaar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Harvard's Nieman Storyboard, and Longreads. Her work is featured in "Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger", "A Measure of Belonging: 21 Writers of Color on the New American South", and "Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic." Her debut memoir, THE HEARTBREAK YEARS (Little A, October 2023), is a hilarious and intimate portrait of a Black woman finding who she is and who she wants to be, one bad date at a time.

Who is this class for?

This online writing class is for writers who struggle to articulate the complicated blend of emotions when writing about a challenging relationship with a loved one — particularly a father. Whether you're working on memoir, essay, or personal narrative, this course will serve as a container to help you narrow your scope so the task at hand feels less overwhelming. Open to all levels, this workshop also brings you into a small, brief community of writers and adult children who understand what you've been through.

What to expect:

Even Baldwin had daddy issues. In this 4-week generative nonfiction writing workshop, you will explore how to write about complicated relationships with care and concern through the work of James Baldwin, Ross Gay, Deesha Philyaw, Edgar Gomez, and Minda Honey herself. Each session includes a generative writing exercise and an opportunity to share your words with the group.

Your discussions will be fluid, allowing you to address your specific relationship and craft concerns: Where is the line between transparency and self-exploitation? What do you owe the reader and what do you owe yourself? How do you identify what's at stake when you're telling your truth? This online writing workshop creates space for the questions that matter most when writing about family.

Due to the nature of the vulnerable subject matter, these sessions will not be recorded. Enrollment is limited to 15 writers to ensure an intimate, supportive creative writing course experience.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will focus on addressing common concerns when writing about family and finding the right entry point and structure for their story — one that helps eliminate the possibility of feelings undermining the narrative. Writers will receive real-time, verbal feedback in class on their writing exercise responses.

Readings

Readings will include essays by James Baldwin, Ross Gay, Deesha Philyaw, Sam Irby, Lucie Brooks, Cheryl Strayed, and Edgar Gomez.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Rage Against the [Father]

Week 2: Classic and Contemporary Writing About Fathers

Week 3: Trauma and Humor

Week 4: The Changing Nature of Relationships Over Time

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• How to write about family with honesty and care
• How to create narrative distance that protects your feelings but doesn't sacrifice intimacy with the reader
• Exposure to writers who write well about difficult father dynamics
• Strategies for finding the right entry point and structure for personal narratives about family
• Experience with generative writing exercises and real-time workshop feedback
• A supportive community of writers navigating similar themes

PRAISE FOR MINDA HONEY

"I have to invent words and phrases to express my gratitude for the spaces that Minda curates in support of BIPOC women writers - of all stages, abilities, voices, and experiences. This is my second time being in one of her workshops and my third time in her care. I've never participated in anything before that is so enriching, fulfilling, affirming, encouraging, enlightening, and fun that also includes substantial critique and feedback. Minda does a beautiful job curating brave spaces for Black women writers to bond, learn from one another, and to provide helpful feedback when it comes to critiquing writing. We get a lot done in a very carefully planned timeline, one that does not feel rushed and is handled with grace. I now model Minda's feedback techniques in my own classes. I also love how much Minda offers of herself as I've done 1:1 with her. She is also a brilliant educator as the readings she chooses for workshops is done with intention including work representative of diverse voices. If you ever have an opportunity to work with Minda Honey, please do so. You'll be so grateful afterwards."

"My "essay" shelf is three david foster wallace collections, two david sedaris collections, a greatest hits from Joan Didion and my latest attempts to be culturally engaged - the Margaret Renkl collection Graceland at Last and the Orwell's Roses collection by Rebecca Solnit. That is to say, super white, super gate kept literary journalish stuff. This class turned me on to Ross Gay and Joy Priest. Those introductions were reason enough to do the class and do another one. That core thing, guided reading, was really valuable to me. The breadth of stuff, and the studies on form, particularly the Joy Priest piece, were helpful to me in my own writing."

"Minda is such a great teacher! The readings, discussions, and exercises were expertly crafted. Teaching and learning via Zoom isn’t easy, but Minda still created a warm and welcoming classroom feeling, even among a group of socially distanced Zoomers. This class was amazing and I hope to The Porch will offer many many more classes with Minda!"

“[Honey’s] candid self-reflection illustrates the depth of her transformation, and her conflicted and at times contradictory desires add a welcome layer of complexity to an already nuanced narrative. . . . Honey’s witty, frank storytelling makes this book compulsively readable.” -Kirkus Reviews

“[A] nuanced and engaging narrative of a young woman struggling through love and heartbreak.” -Booklist

“Every few decades, there’s that one book that shapes directly how we all understand the potentially radical, and radically heartbreaking, space between touching and being touched, running to and running away, f’ing shit up and feeling f’ed. Minda Honey has created a momentous piece of art, of course, but most importantly, The Heartbreak Years will teach a generation of us what’s possible when writing through, to, and beneath the pulpy inside of desire and fear.” -Kiese Laymon, bestselling author of Long Division and Heavy

“If The Heartbreak Years were a person, it’d be the girl you meet in line for the bathroom at the club. Vulnerable, hilarious, there to whisper hard-earned wisdom into your ear while holding back your hair. Minda Honey has written a fierce rallying cry for the single and lovesick, for those who dare to see the hope in being a romantic. The stories in this book are vibrant, tender, self-aware without being jaded, compulsively readable but never easy. When some f’boy has got you down, Honey’s words are an outstretched hand reaching to lift you back up.” -Edgar Gomez, author of High-Risk Homosexual and Alligator Tears

"Minda Honey has written a great memoir for her generation, and for right now.  Her memory is so precise, I felt as if I were in the bar or car for these devastatingly honest chapters - as a writer, she's never sentimental or compromised, but searing and truthful and often hilarious in her narratives, seeking realistic love and life and community.  She's like a stand-up comic, but one whose prose is laden with insight, literary heroines, and the perfect detail." -Susan Straight, author of Mecca

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Minda Honey
• Begins Wednesday, August 12, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 PM EST
• Tuition is $345 USD.
  
• Class is limited to 15 writers.