Grackle image by artist Carolina Acosta.
There are few greater glories than having written a story that surprises its readers, moves them to tears, to laughter, to heckling—to whatever it is we hoped they’d experience, and maybe to a few sensations we couldn’t have predicted.
This energetic, engaging creative writing class will name and examine the unique strengths of your prose. It will offer guidance to further texturize your work into full, developed projects by exploring the murky and extensive waters of fiction, memoir, non-fiction, and all the places in-between. Whether you know exactly what story you want to tell, or have an indecipherable writing itch at your brain: this class for you.
Every week we begin by writing stories or essays based off unique prompts pulled from the stories we read. Our readings are of varied lengths and styles, and are broad and diverse — for example this year, we read works by Grace Paley, Gish Jen, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Ruth Ozeki, Helen Oyeyemi, Richard Powers, Steven Dunn, and Wioletta Griog. Every week we also share and receive extensive, productive feedback on each others’ writing.
It’s a rewarding class for all thoughtful and curious writers looking to participate in and build a strong community.
Miah Arnold
Miah Arnold is the principal and founder of Grackle and Grackle. She has taught creative writing for over twenty years at nonprofits and she has also taught in universities including the University of Houston (where she received her Ph.D. in Creative Writing). Her essay “You Owe Me”, about teaching children at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, was collected in Best American Essays in 2012. Her first novel, Sweet Land of Bigamy, was published in 2012. She is currently working on a book of essays and a book of poetry.
