Led by Jenny Forrester, author of the western American rural coming of age, Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir, and the anti-authoritarian chapbook and Colorado Book Award Finalist, Soft Hearted Stories: Seeking Saviors, Cowboy Stylists, and Other Fallacies of Authoritarianism. She wrote a writing instruction book, Brilliant: The Art of Literary Radiance and Love: The Art of Cherishing the World, a socio-political creative nonfiction novel. She's the editor and publisher of Mountain Bluebird Magazine & Press. Jenny lives and writes in the Colorado Rockies, where she continues to cultivate a literary life rooted in care, nuance, and radiant possibility.

Cultivate your unique literary radiance and nurture your lifelong writing practice. Based on Brilliant: The Art of Literary Radiance, this course invites writers at any stage to deepen their engagement with language, creativity, and the radiant possibilities of their own voice.

In a noisy world, writing can feel like both refuge and battle. This course offers a steady, expansive path into the writing life, guided by Brilliant: The Art of Literary Radiance. We will explore not only craft, but also the sustaining practices that allow writers to endure, evolve, and shine through personal, political, and cultural noise.

Brilliant positions writing as a luminous act of attention, care, and endurance. Through weekly readings, reflective exercises, guided discussions, and generative writing prompts, students will engage with the silent teachers of the page, examine their relationships with audience and self, and experiment with the daily practice of writing as both discipline and devotion.

This course welcomes writers at every level—whether you're beginning your journey, returning to the page after time away, or sustaining a long-term writing practice. We will build community while honoring solitude, support growth while resisting punitive models of accountability, and embrace the wild, quiet, and radiant elements that make writing a lifelong art.

Course Reading Includes: 

Brilliant: The Art of Literary Radiance by Jenny Forrester (primary text)

Selected supplemental essays and excerpts (provided as PDFs or links), including: Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write (excerpts) Joan Didion, "Why I Write" James Baldwin, "The Creative Process" Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (excerpts) Audre Lorde, "Poetry Is Not a Luxury"

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: The Radiant Invitation

Week 2: The Quiet Power of Practice

Week 3: The Landscape of the Self

Week 4: Fear, Doubt, and Cultural Noise

Week 5: Witness and Radiance in the World

Week 6: A Lifelong Conversation with Language

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

Students will: Generate new creative work each week. Complete short reflective writings about their writing lives. Draft scenes, essays, or sections of larger projects. Develop a personal writing practice plan. Share selected work for gentle, constructive feedback. 

We'll also:

• Cultivate a sustainable writing practice rooted in attention, spaciousness, and intrinsic motivation.
• Develop a deeper relationship with language and discover your unique literary radiance.
• Learn how to navigate creative doubts, external pressures, and the evolving literary landscape.
• Engage with generative exercises that open new pathways into scenes, essays, memoir, and narrative.
• Build a personal writing toolkit for ongoing literary practice beyond the course.
• Experience both independent writing practice and community support within a non-punitive, creative container. 

PRAISE FOR JENNY:

"It is kind of difficult for me to write about how invaluable Jenny has been as an editor. She took my scraps of writings and helped me craft an entire book out of them. She did this through compassion and humor and asking challenging questions that made me not only rethink the manuscript, but also rethink the world that I live in. It felt like working with a doula whose presence was calm with unwavering faith in my text (bith), even if I was sure that it was all going to fall apart." -Mai'a Williams, author of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines, No God but Ghosts, and Monsters and Other Silent Creatures.

"As a former Unchaste reader and Mountain Bluebird contributor, it was an honor to interview Jenny about her new book BRILLIANT. This book is a wonderful companion for any writer at any stage of the writing process. We need this kind of radical sensitivity and strength in our lives right now." -Alissa Hattman, author of Sift, The 3rd Thing Press, and POST, Zines & Things, and more.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: