Begins Tuesday, February 10th, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 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.

Meet the Teaching Artist Interview:

Writing Sex Is Never Just About Sex: A Conversation with Minda Honey

Who is this class for?

This course is for nonfiction writers who want to write about sex. All levels welcome.

What to expect:

Writing about sex is never just about sex. In this online writing workshop, we'll explore the many dimensions of sex writing—from humor to the sacred, from pleasure to trauma. This creative writing course examines how to write about intimate experiences with authenticity, meaning, and appropriate boundaries.

Throughout this four-week nonfiction workshop, you'll study work by acclaimed authors including Audre Lorde, Natalie Lima, Kiese Laymon, Melissa Febos, and Hanif Abdurraquib. Through guided readings, writing prompts, and peer discussion, you'll practice different approaches to sex writing and discover your own voice in this intimate genre. Writers will have the opportunity to share their work in class and receive real-time feedback from both the instructor and fellow participants in this supportive online writing class.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will be exposed to exemplary writers writing about sex and will have the opportunity, through writing prompts and exercises, to practice many different kinds of sex writing. Students will receive verbal feedback from the instructor and peers during live workshop sessions.

Readings may include work by Audre Lorde, Natalie Lima, Kiese Laymon, Melissa Febos, Hanif Abdurraquib and others.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Why write about sex?

Week 2: How to write about sex with humor

Week 3: How to write about sex as a sacred act

Week 4: Sex writing vs. writing about sexual trauma

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• How to write about sex meaningfully
• How to write about sex with humor
• How to write about sex as a sacred act
• Understanding the different craft choices when writing about sex versus sexual trauma
• How to write about sexual trauma vulnerably while also respecting your own boundaries

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 Tuesday, February 10, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30 PM EST
• Tuition is $345 USD.