Begins Saturday, May 16, 2026

Live Seminar via Zoom from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PDT): 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM / Chicago (CDT): 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM / New York (EDT): 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM / London (BST): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM / Berlin (CEST): 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

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

Instructor Bio

Instructor Christina Berke is a Chilean-American writer and trauma-informed educator with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from UNLV, a BA from UC Berkeley, and an M.Ed. from UCLA. She is the inaugural Carol Shields Prize Foundation Residency Fellow and the 2022 Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award Recipient in Nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her work has been supported by Sewanee Writers' Conference, Hedgebrook, Storyknife, Vermont Studio Center, and Ragdale. Her writing is in The Sun, Lidia Yuknavitch's Khora, Pithead Chapel, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere.

Who is this class for?

This online writing workshop is for creative nonfiction writers looking for inspiration and deeper dives into their memoir or personal essays. Whether you're mining teenage memories for a memoir-in-progress or looking to generate fresh material, this seminar welcomes writers at the introductory and intermediate levels.

What to expect:

Grab your driving permit and mixtapes, dust off your prom clothes, your Pee Chee folders and glitter pens to spend time in homeroom once more to write about those precious teenage years. While no one wants to repeat those awkward moments, we get to explore them in our writing—the mortifying, the funny, the sweet.

In this two-hour generative nonfiction writing workshop, you'll revisit coming-of-age milestones that your adult self can now see with compassion. We'll read multi-genre excerpts as examples, discuss how writers examine those awkward teen years in literature, and write with guided prompts inspired by the pieces, with an option to share in a safe space.

This live Zoom writing class is designed to help you unlock vivid memories and transform them into raw material for your creative nonfiction projects.

What are the writing goals?

In this seminar, students will generate material for creative nonfiction projects and mine life stories to dive deeper into critical coming-of-age moments. Expect to leave with several pages of raw material ready to develop into essays, memoir chapters, or other nonfiction work. This is a generative workshop—there is no instructor feedback component.

COURSE OUTLINE

Session Flow:

• Welcome and warm-up writing exercise
• Reading excerpt 1 plus guided writing prompt
• Optional share
• Reading excerpt 2 plus guided writing prompt
• Optional share
• Reading excerpt 3 plus guided writing prompt
• Optional share
• Next steps and close-out

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Learn to excavate memories with precision and sensory detail
• Generate several pages of raw material from your teenage years
• Learn craft techniques for turning personal memories into compelling creative nonfiction
• Explore how published writers examine coming-of-age experiences in literature
• Practice writing from guided prompts in a supportive, safe environment
• Leave with new material ready to develop into essays, memoir chapters, or longer projects

TESTIMONIALS:

"After taking this class, I feel more confident in writing overall. The professor really cared about creating a fun, healthy, and safe feeling environment for the class. The professor was very thorough with explaining assignments, as well as having clear instructions for each assignment." — Former Student

"This was by far my favorite class this semester--I really liked that all the writing projects were all fun to write. Professor Berke always brought positive energy to the class and is always willing to help her students." — Former Student

"This course taught me so much. I learned about new forms, styles, and formats of creative non-fiction that I feel like have given me a solid foundation to go forth and continue practicing the craft, and ultimately write my stories into their new, beautiful homes. I am also very grateful for the community space this course provided!" — Former Student

"This was my first class and Christina made me feel so welcomed and really sparked wonderful discussions among the students. She inspired me to write more and I am really grateful she taught the class. She clearly enjoys the subject as well!" — Former Student

"Christina is a wonderful instructor. I appreciated her intentionality in her selection of readings, and the ways that she guided us in working through examples and applying the principles to our own creative work. The free-writing prompts were also thought-provoking and have given me a lot of material to work with as well." — Former Student

"Christina is kind, humble, and helpful. She clearly has a heart that wants to help writers emerge into the literary world. Her class was helpful for learning how to pitch to editors. I'm sending my first pitch this week, and her class gave me the confidence to know that I'm covering the basics in the pitch. It also feels like I have one more person rooting for me as a writer." — Former Student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $99 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Christina Berke
• Saturday, May 16, 2026
• Live seminar via Zoom from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
• Tuition is $99 USD.