Begins Thursday, January 9th, 2025

This class will have three live Zoom Work Rooms on Week 1, Week 5, and Week 10. The live Work Rooms will meet 7:00PM - 9:30PM Eastern.

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us. 

Taught by Blaise Allysen Kearsley, a Black-biracial writer and teacher based in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, Longreads, the Boston Globe, Electric Literature's The Nervous Breakdown, Elle, Midnight Breakfast, The Weeklings, and in the anthologies Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic, Nonwhite and Woman, and Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, And Abandoned Rock Operas. Blaise is a contributing editor at Vestal Review, the oldest flash fiction journal on the planet.

You'll have weekly access to lessons along with recommended readings and writing prompts to generate new work or dig deeper into work-in-progress. Each lesson will focus on different tools of the craft, including drawing multi-dimensional characters that a reader can "see," navigating time and place, the art of description, and mining your memory.

Each participant will have an opportunity to submit work for peer and instructor feedback, and everyone will be assigned an accountability partner.

We'll also have Zoom check-ins and writing sessions during weeks 1, 5, and 10.

Readings include short excerpts from texts by James McBride, Johanna Adorjan, Melissa Febos, Nicole Chung, and more.

This workshop is a text-based, asynchronous memoir 101 course that will include three virtual check-ins and writing sessions via Zoom, covering a multitude of craft elements.

ZOOM MEETINGS

For this class, we will have Work Room Zoom Meetings from 7:00PM ET - 9:30PM ET during Week 1, Week 5, and Week 10 of the class. 

COURSE SKELETON:

• Week 1: Memory (with live Zoom meeting, 7:00PM - 9:30PM Eastern))
  
• Week 2: Situation & Story
• Week 3: Voice, POV, and Character Development
• Week 4: Description
• Week 5: Structure (with live Zoom meeting, 7:00PM - 9:30PM Eastern))
  
• Week 6: Setting + Pacing
• Week 7: Dialogue
• Week 8: Cultivating a Writing Practice
• Week 9: Beliefs and Reversals
• Week 10: Art of Revision (with live Zoom meeting, 7:00PM - 9:30PM Eastern)
  

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Learn new tools of the art and craft of memoir or sharpen existing skills
• Generate pages
• Take advantage of blocked out writing time and accountability
• See your work through a reader's eyes
• Read like a writer
• Be exposed to an inclusive host of diverse writers
  

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

• You're finding the constraints of your current writing practice too limiting.
• You want exposure to a range of new approaches to bring to your writing practice.
  
• You want an expanded sense of what is possible in your work in 2024 and beyond!

TESTIMONIALS:

"Blaise's class made me a stronger writer. It was the hardest workshop I've ever done, but also one of the most important." — Jennifer Stewart

"I've taken several workshops over the years, all over the country, and this was by far the best. Blaise is a goddamn treasure." — Anonymous

"I feel so inspired, enriched, encouraged, and empowered in my writing practice. I've been sitting at my desk since we all logged off just feeling how full of gratitude my heart is—for you, the workshop, and the entire group." — Adaeze Elechi

"Blaise was really able to build a community on Zoom. This is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and she made it seem so easy." — Anonymous

"I love that the readings center BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ voices. That has been an important and edifying element." —Kimberly Balsam

"I genuinely looked forward to each week. The advice you gave sent me back out into the world with confidence and purpose." — Anonymous

"You treat every question with such a genuine desire to give the best possible answer. For someone like me, that means the world."— Anonymous

"Thank you for creating this generous space for us to try new things and be vulnerable, for the insightful feedback, and for leading us through the last 8 weeks. I'm really grateful." — Alex Fendrich

"I love the readings we do, and especially that they so often feature writers of color. The written feedback from you is always so helpful and in-depth. The prompts helped me to develop a lot of content. I always look forward to workshop nights -- it's a safe space to share."

"I felt so often in college, that I was writing against these very confident men who were forthcoming about the problems within my work and style. Working in your group has been restorative and has allowed me to trust myself without fear of being torn apart."

"Working with Blaise has made me a more confident writer. She's helped me to see my writing as a larger work, and creates a safe, inclusive, encouraging space to share and connect with other writers."

"Blaise is such a skilled reader and editor, and her notes are always valuable. She offers wonderful perspectives, and assembles groups of writers with keen perspectives of their own."

"I really loved the class. You treat every question with such a genuine desire to give the best possible answer and it made me happy every time. I admire that you focus on building people up. For someone like me, that means the world."

"During quarantine I had to show up for myself and others who counted on me, even when I felt like all I wanted to do was hide under my couch. Being part of this creative group of writers saved me."

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

For this class, we will have Work Room Zoom Meetings from 7:00PM ET - 9:30PM ET on select Thursdays.

We will also use Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom, designed specifically for writing classes. It is a private, easy to use, and highly interactive online platform. Learn more about it from this class demo. In addition to ongoing discussions, all craft materials, reading assignments, and writing prompts will be available in the Wet Ink classroom as a supplement to our weekly live meetings via Zoom. Students will also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online environment in Wet Ink.

• Instructor: Blaise Allysen Kearsley
  
• Class size limited to 10 writers
• Class starts on Thursday, January 9th, 2025
• This class will have three live Zoom Work Rooms on Week 1, Week 5, and Week 10.
• The live Work Rooms will meet 7:00PM - 9:30PM Eastern.
  

Instructor Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a Black-biracial writer and teacher based in Brooklyn. She comes from a long line of teachers, builders, visual artists, and writers. Her writing has appeared in Longreads, the Boston Globe, Electric Literature's The Nervous Breakdown, Elle, Midnight Breakfast, The Weeklings, and in the anthologies Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. (Simon Spotlight Entertainment) and Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, And Abandoned Rock Operas (Crown Archetype). She has essays forthcoming in Catapult and the anthology Nonwhite and Woman in February 2022. She is the creator/producer/host of the How I Learned storytelling series and has performed at The Moth, Literary Death Match, Risk, and The Liar Show. Blaise is a contributing editor at Vestal Review, the oldest flash fiction journal on the planet. Learn more about Blaise here.