-Elizabeth Bishop, At The Fishhouses

“We were afraid of the dead because we never could tell when they might show up again.”

-Jamaica Kincaid

This course is open to all levels, and is for those who want to dig deep into their writing voice and experiment with form and shed some preconceptions about exactly how a story should be told.

This is an instructor-facilitated, peer-driven writing class in which we will investigate the complexities of writing family--the benefits, hindrances and difficulties of writing about those we are most entangled with. We’ll be working in different genres and, using Wet Ink as our classroom, we’ll read published work and hold Zoom discussions of our own written assignments based on weekly prompts.

By learning various craft techniques, such as voice, tone, point of view, psychic distance, metaphor, allusion, etc., we will free ourselves up to explore some territories that we never thought we'd have the confidence to explore in the forms of flash memoir, fiction, poetry, and epistolary stories.

This class will be a safe and supportive space where we can ask questions and try to answer them through our own creations and engagement with our peers. By the end of the 6 weeks, you should have 4-5 drafts of stories in varied genres to be revised to stand alone as finished pieces or to be the beginning of a longer work. Open to all levels, but please be advised that we will be covering craft concepts and not the basic mechanics of writing.

Some authors whose works we will be reading/discussing:

• Jamaica Kincaid
• Amy Hempel
• John Edgar Wideman
• Grace Paley
• Raymond Carver
• Meg Pokgrass
• Pia Z. Erhardt
• Edwidge Dandicat
• Z.Z.Packer
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Lucille Clifton
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• George Saunders
• Lydia Davis
• Ander Monson
• Sandra Cisneros

COURSE DETAILS:

• Open to all levels
• Meets Wednesday evenings, 7p-9p EST (on Zoom, with Wet Ink for sharing our work) 6 sessions (Final session to be a presentation reading/discussion of future writing intentions)
• Students should expect to complete a weekly writing assignment based on a prompt (1-3 pages per assignment), as well as read the work of their peers and the weekly assigned short published reading (provided in a PDF packet at the start of the course.)

STUDENTS LOVE KATE:

"I am writing review as recipient of a gift from my husband to participate in this course. What a lovely course I experienced with Kate Hill Cantrill. I was a newbie to a formal writing course and also busy with regular life in the meantime. Kate was gracious, passionate, and kind. She was supportive and inspiring in her guidance and feedback. I appreciated the well prepared content and writing prompts, and loved the idea that we could be honest and open about the difficult topics we approached in writing about family. I felt Kate was also particularly patient and encouraging to newcomers to the process. I would recommend her course highly, and also hope to take a future course with her when I have the time." -Richard J.

"I appreciated the ability to experiment with writing genres I would not have ordinarily have had the courage (& maybe even interest) to play around with, e.g., poetry, but surprisingly I really enjoyed writing a freeform piece. The class was life-changing for me because it provided an environment to explore how some of my childhood experiences affected me in a creative way; I am strongly considering sharing these with others." -Sonya C.

"I would recommend Kate's class very highly. The class FAR exceeded my expectations! Kate is a fabulous teacher. She provided excellent input and a reading list of suggested authors that has been inspirational. Kate's feedback was so helpful for my personal growth as was her reading list, positive attitude, and her knowledge about writing was exceptional." -Ellen G.

"Kate Hill Cantrill's class Writing Our Family was excellent! The group of students worked well together, Kate's comments were precise and helpful and I learned a lot. I would do it again!" -V.S.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class will have a weekly Zoom meeting, weekly deadlines, and plenty of interaction with Kate and your peers with the addition of Wet Ink, a dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online classroom environment. You can get the work done as you see fit week-to-week, so it is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Each writer will have the opportunity to submit their work, receiving detailed feedback from their peers as well as Kate; follow-up questions and conversations often occur. Kate engages with these discussions throughout the week.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

• Instructor: Kate Hill Cantrill

• Class size limited to 8 writers

• Class starts Wednesday, April 16th, 2025

• Zoom meetings are scheduled weekly on Wednesday Nights, 7-9 EST

• Course is fully ONLINE; students will have a weekly Zoom meeting and can work according to their own schedule within weekly deadlines in Wet Ink. Once you have enrolled the instructor will send you a link to our online classroom, provided via Wet Ink.

If you have questions, please contact us HERE.