New Writers, Get Inspired and Learn About Different Writing Genres!

This spring, I’m teaching Introduction to Creative Writing at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, a unique six week class designed to help new writers explore various genres of storytelling.

Because of the quarantine, the class will take place online, meeting from 1 pm PST until 4 pm PST on Saturday, May 2nd through Saturday, June 13, 2020 (no class on May 16th).

Here’s the class description:

This six-week course is perfect for anyone just getting started on their path to being a writer. Students work in small breakout sessions with experienced writers and teachers, then attend a lecture by various guest speakers with expertise in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or screenwriting. Short assignments are workshopped in the weekly breakouts. The goal of the course is to expose new writers to a variety of types of writing while getting their creative juices flowing. At the end of the quarter, students will feel more confident about their skills and will be prepared for further study of writing.

So if you’re interested in learning about different genres of writing, this class is for you.

Guest speakers include:

• Kevin O’Keeffe, writer and editor based in Los Angeles. Mr. O’Keeffe’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Advocate, Mic, INTO, The Daily Beast, Texas Monthly, and more. He is a member of the Television Critics Association and the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society where he writes analysis and criticism of film and television, largely through a queer lens.
• Elizabeth Silver, MA, author of the memoir The Tincture of Time: A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty and the critically acclaimed novel The Execution of Noa P. Singleton. Ms. Silver has published work in The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, New York Magazine, Literary Hub, and The Los Angeles Review, among others. Her work has earned fellowships and residencies from Ucross Foundation, Ragdale, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, A Room of Her Own Foundation, and the British Centre for Literary Translation.
• Jean Chen Ho, MFA, author of the forthcoming short story collection Fiona and Jane and doctoral candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Ms. Ho’s work has appeared in Guernica, The Rumpus, Apogee, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and NPR. Her writing has earned fellowships from Kundiman, the MacDowell Colony, and Vermont Studio Center.
• Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, MFA, has taught courses on social justice poetry, literary communities of Los Angeles, and literary submission strategies at Antioch University, Inspiration2Publication, and PEN Center USA. Her activism and writing has focused on immigrant rights culminating in her debut poetry collection, Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications, 2016), which recounts her time volunteering with the Tucson-based human rights organization No More Deaths/No Mas Muertos. Her work is published in Acentos Review, CALYX, crazyhorse, and The James Franco Review among others.
• Koji Steven Sakai, MFA, award-winning screenwriter/producer/novelist and WGA member, whose feature credits include Dying to Kill, Monsters & Me, #1 Serial Killer, The People I’ve Slept With, and Haunted Highway. Mr. Sakai has produced a comedy special for Netflix and the series Comedy InvAsian.
• Lesley Hyatt, MFA and Fulbright Scholar, has taught imaginative writing to students of all ages and backgrounds for over 20 years. She is the founder of The WriteMind Project, a course that bridges creative writing and mindfulness practice, and also Joyriders LA, an ongoing mindfulness class.

To enroll in my workshop section (REG#372872), click here; then, on the enrollment page, scroll to the bottom and click “Enroll” next to the section where I’m listed as the instructor.

I hope to see you there!

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