Explore Different Writing Genres and Generate New Work
This fall, I’m teaching another round of Introduction to Creative Writing, a six-week course at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program that starts on Saturday, October 27th and meets from 1 pm – 4 pm. 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:
Laurel Ollstein, MFA, award-winning playwright whose play Cheese was published by Original Works Publishing. Ms. Ollstein’s work has been produced around the country, including Esther’s Moustache, Blackwell’s Corner, Insomniac, and The Dark Ages, among others. She is a former member of the Actor’s Gang, currently is an artistic associate of Playwrights Arena, and her essays have been published by Freshyarn.com and Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative.
Adam McOmber, MFA, author of My House Gathers Desires: Stories, The White Forest: A Novel, and This New & Poisonous Air. His stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Kenyon Review, and Fairy Tale Review.
liz gonzalez, MFA, author of Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected. Ms. González’s work has appeared in Voices from Leimert Park Anthology Redux; Wide Awake: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond; and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Her recent awards include a 2017 Residency at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and a 2016 Incite / Insight Award from the Arts Council for Long Beach for her work in the arts through Uptown Word & Arts where, as the director and founder, she promotes literacy and the arts.
Rachel Kann, MFA, author of the short story collection 10 for Everything. Ms. Kann also is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, and So Luminous the Wildflowers. She has performed her poetry at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, and the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts.
Ron McCants, MFA, TV writer, playwright; WGA member who has written for Speechless. His plays have been produced in LA, New York and London. Mr. McCants has been a writer for the Disney ABC Writing Program and is the recipient of multiple playwriting awards and the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship for children’s television.
April Wayland, author of seven picture books, including More Than Enough: A Passover Story, It’s Not My Turn to Look for Grandma!, and New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story, named Best Jewish Picture Book and winner of the Sydney Taylor Gold Book Award. Ms. Wayland won the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Girl Coming In for a Landing: A Novel in Poems and has won seven poetry awards from the SCBWI. She is a recipient of the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing.
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.
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