by Writing Workshops Staff
2 months ago
âWelcome to my secret shame.â
That single prompt â handed out in Chloe Caldwellâs year-long memoir incubator â cracked open the book Courtney Kocak had been quietly circling for years. âIt felt like a much-needed invitation to finally write into the experiences Iâd been ashamed of,â she says. âNow, almost everything I write has an invisible âWelcome to my secret shameâ at the beginning. Itâs been so transformational that many of my most embarrassing moments no longer hold shame for me. What a gift!â
The gift in question: Courtneyâs debut memoir-in-essays, Girl Gone Wild, published April 1, 2026, from Trio House Press. Subtitled The Hollywood Misadventures of a Small-Town Girl, itâs a wry, often heartbreaking coming-of-age story â yes, including the chapter where she sells T-shirts on the Girls Gone Wild bus.
If Courtneyâs name sounds familiar, thatâs because sheâs been everywhere: The New York Times, The Cut, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Cosmopolitan, Slate. Sheâs a writer on Amazonâs Emmy-winning animated series Danger & Eggs and Netflixâs Know It All, hosts three podcasts with over two million downloads combined, and splits her time between Austin and Los Angeles. Multi-hyphenate hardly covers it.
But back in May 2021, she was a working writer who couldnât quite figure out how to corral her ideas into a book â so she enrolled in our 3-Month Essay/Memoir Mentorship and never really left. Over the next five years, Courtney became one of our most engaged students, racking up classes the way other people rack up library books: four consecutive cohorts of Diana Spechlerâs Advanced Personal Essay workshop, a Beyond Memoir draft generator, Sanibel Lazarâs TikTok for Authors seminar, Caitlin Kunkelâs How to Write a Short Humor Piece, and finally the year-long incubator with Chloe that turned her sprawling idea into a manuscript.
âIâm addicted to taking writing-related classes,â she admits. âEvery time, I learn something new and feel more empowered and more capable of building the kind of writing career I want.â
The incubator, though, was the hinge moment. âBefore taking the incubator, my writing life was unstructured and scattered, but now itâs highly focused and strategic. I still believe in creative spontaneity, but Iâve learned how to fully harness those lightning bolts of inspiration with discipline, long-term planning, and sustainable momentum.â Writing a book, sheâs quick to admit, can feel lonely and overwhelming, and a year of accountability, peer feedback, and Chloeâs mentorship made all the difference. âI genuinely donât know if Girl Gone Wild would exist in the world today without that experience.â
For writers stuck in the thick of a draft, her secret weapon is disarmingly low-stakes: shrink the task until your brain canât say no. âIâll tell myself I only have to sit at the computer for 15 minutes and remind myself that the first sentences are allowed to be terrible. Usually thatâs enough to trick my brain into getting started â and before I know it, the work is fun and interesting again. Progress matters more than perfection.â
Now, in the kind of full-circle moment we live for, Courtney is the one running the incubator. Her Memoir in Essays Incubator launches September 8th, 2026 â a year-long program designed to give the next cohort of memoirists the same structure, accountability, and life-changing mentorship Chloe gave her. âIâm really proud of the coursework Iâm developing,â she says, âand I canât wait to indulge my incubator students with the same kind of mentorship I got.â
Her advice to anyone weighing whether to take the leap is vintage Courtney â equal parts warm and playfully insistent: âIf youâre on the fence, you clearly have a curiosity about writing â and the best way to explore that is in a structured learning environment alongside other passionate writers. Taking these classes has been some of the best money Iâve ever spent. Honestly, do you need a stronger endorsement than that?!â
Between the book launch, the audiobook she narrated and produced herself, the new incubator, and the second memoir already calling her name, Courtney Kocakâs so-called secret shame has become the engine of one of the most exciting writing careers weâve had the privilege to watch unfold. Weâre honored to have been a stop along the way â and even more thrilled to have her on our teaching roster.
Ready to begin your own success story? Whether youâre drafting your first essay or hauling a half-finished manuscript across the finish line, weâre here for it. Explore our full lineup of online creative writing workshops and find the class, instructor, and community to take your writing where you want it to go. Generations of alumni â Courtney included â are proof that expert instruction, generous community, and real accountability can turn the book in your head into a book in the world.
