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Four New Classes in the Kitchen – Sign Up Today
May Intensive with Ariel Gore
This year we’re offering the spring intensive taught by Ariel Gore in late May. You’ll get 12 assignment in 12 days May 20th to May 31st. The intensives allow you to generate lots of new material quickly & get lots of feedback. Great for jump starting your creative brain or a new project.
The intensive costs $145. You can pay right here:
* * *
Blocks and Traumas: Jamming Through, Moving On and Getting Back into Your Groove
8-week Summer Class with Inga Muscio
June 1 – July 30
Dealing with a happy life-changing event (birth, graduation, marriage, falling in love) can be just as unsettling to your life as a sad one (death, depression, violence, a break up). I designed this class because whenever one life’s little jackass interruptions comes my way, I had a tendency to reel and freak out, thus taking me even further away from whatever centering and productive creative project I am working on. I came to realize that life’s little jackass interruptions are not the problem. The problem was my way of dealing. So I developed a system to keep my creative patterns intact, no matter what.
Most people do not think happy events are problematic, but they are. Anything that significantly alters Life As You Knew It creates upheaval, and upheaval does not generally serve creativity. How can you facilitate the dust settling? This class will help you figure that one out.
Negative events obviously impact your creative flow, as do emotional blocks. Writing is a great way to get back into stride and move through the sadness, grief or depression, but when it takes a pile driver to get you out of bed, writing seems an a faraway dream from pixie-dust lands.
This class isn’t just for writers. Whether you’re working on a long-term writing project or haven’t written since your book report days, we’re gonna work out a system to help you get back, and stay in, a nice groove.
Class size is strictly limited, so please sign up early!
Class cost: $275
$75 deposit saves your spot
* * *
Lit Star Summer Session with Ariel Gore
June 15 – mid-August
A new session of Lit Star Training — the 8-week writing course taught by Ariel Gore — starts June 15th and runs through mid-August. Writers in Lit Star Training spend at least a few hours each week on their writing and online critiques. You can log in any time of the day or night. Writers in the group are new and seasoned, wanting to work on memoir or fiction. The class works as well for those writing to weekly assignments (with no big projects in mind) and for people who are starting or working on existing book projects.
The class is $275 — a $90 deposit will hold your spot. You can pay the deposit right here:
* * *
NEW! Turning Life into Literature: Reading and Writing the New Memoir
Taught by Ariel Gore
June 29 – August 24
We’ll spend the summer sharpening our craft by delving into eight classic memoirs of the 20th and 21st centuries (as well as selected passages from eight more). With group discussion and short writing exercises based on our readings, we’ll deepen our understanding of the evolving art of the contemporary memoir and come away prepared to tell our stories not just as whiney kids who know how to write but as literary artists working in a real and radical tradition. This class will require reading a book a week (reading list will be available a few weeks early so that slower readers can get a head start) and will include shorter writing exercises than the regular Lit Star Training class.
The class costs $265 — a deposit of $85 saves your spot
You can pay right here:
Ariel Gore is a fabulous workshop facilitator; I’ve been taking classes from her since 2001. In each of the workshops, she brings together a diverse group of writers with varying degrees of competency; and, whether the writer is seasoned or a beginner, she understands exactly where each person is coming from and she meets them there. Not only did I find my unique voice, I learned how to be a thoughtful listener and how to provide insightful critique. I would recommend her workshops to anyone interested in memoir and the art of a good story.
—Lani Jo Leigh
Ariel’s workshops jumpstarted my psyche. I’m back into looking at the world as a writer instead of as a would-be writer. I have her to thank for that. Workshops are almost at your own pace. Always encouraging. She has a knack for assembling a great group of writers together every time.
—Margaret Elysia Garcia
Ariel Gore’s writing workshop pushed me past the borders of my creativity and into an exciting unknown place of writing within myself. If you’ve ever put to pen to paper and wondered what you were really capable of Ariel’s workshop will take you there.
—Gabrielle Rivera
I throughly enjoy Ariel’s workshops. Writers from a variety of backgrounds gather together, bringing in work with all kinds of themes, and as each piece is workshopped, Ariel’s ear for the crucial aspects of great storytelling kicks right in. Her feedback is thoughtful, insightful, precise, and multilayered.
—Bonnie Ditlevsen
When I started writing with Ariel I had zero idea how to write for audience. In work shopping with her, I have found my voice and with practice have found different ways to formulate story. I have learned how to incorporate dialogue and am so much more confident with my work. I recommend this workshop to all aspiring, practicing, and practiced writers.
—Krystee Sidwell
Eve, I’m Falling
By Anna Yarrow
Wind. Wind. Be transparent as wind, be as possible and relentless and dangerous, be what moves things forward without needing to leave a mark, be part of this collection of molecules that begins somewhere unknown and can’t help but keep rising. Rising. Rising. Rising.
–Eve Ensler, In the Body of the World
Eve, I’m falling.
I attended your talk last week, and afterwards you hugged me and gave me a high-five, and said, “Way to go!” I spent the next day in bed, hiding under the covers, reading your new book. I read with my silence, my tears, my horror. I swallowed it whole.
I feel it digesting. An oracle. A wailing-wall.
You wrote about V-day, and One Billion Rising—women around the globe, dancing to end violence.
I confess: I was at the State Capitol on V-day, but I didn’t dance. I didn’t hold a sign, or march in the parade.
I didn’t shout, “Vagina!”
I was mute. Alone in the crowd.
Falling.
A snaky voice in my mind whispered, isn’t it normal for men to rape? to be violent? isn’t that what women/vaginas are for? wives submit to your husbands. children obey your parents.
You said that next V-day will be Two Billion Rising—women around the globe, streaming to court houses and police stations, to ‘press charges’ against their rapists and abusers.
Snapshot: Tall stranger. Tiny girl. Dark. Blond. Alley. Hands. Going. Away. Where?
Faceless. Phantom.
Real or imagined?
Video: Authority stands in my bedroom doorway—sleazy eyes and tight jaw. Says, “I spanked you because I love you. Because God told me to.” I live by spanking-time, an internal calendar . . . how long since the last correction? Gangly eleven-year-old, draped across his lap. Wooden spoon denting red ovals on my buttocks.
Someone told me that when I dream, all the characters are facets of myself. That’s what I’m afraid of.
I dream I am hermaphrodite. And wake, with something missing. My power. My Godhead.
My sexual fantasies: brutal. Coercion. Surrender. Ecstasy.
My mothers and fathers dance inside me, shouting, “Shhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Falling.
Wind, molecules, words—catch me.
Hold me.
Anna Yarrow lives in Santa Fe.
Jamming Through Blocks and Traumas: Inga Muscio Returns to the Literary Kitchen
Blocks and Traumas: Jamming Through, Moving On and Getting Back into Your Groove
8-week Summer Class with Inga Muscio
Class starts June 1 & runs through July 30…
Dealing with a happy life-changing event (birth, graduation, marriage, falling in love) can be just as unsettling to your life as a sad one (death, depression, violence, a break up). I designed this class because whenever one life’s little jackass interruptions comes my way, I had a tendency to reel and freak out, thus taking me even further away from whatever centering and productive creative project I am working on. I came to realize that life’s little jackass interruptions are not the problem. The problem was my way of dealing. So I developed a system to keep my creative patterns intact, no matter what.
Most people do not think happy events are problematic, but they are. Anything that significantly alters Life As You Knew It creates upheaval, and upheaval does not generally serve creativity. That is, it does once the dust settles, but how can you facilitate the dust settling? This class will help you figure that one out.
Negative events obviously impact your creative flow, as do emotional blocks. Writing is a great way to get back into stride and move through the sadness, grief or depression, but when it takes a pile driver to get you out of bed, writing seems an a faraway dream from pixie-dust lands.
This class isn’t just for writers. Whether you’re working on a long-term writing project or haven’t written since your book report days, we’re gonna work out a system to help you get back, and stay in, a nice groove.
Class size is strictly limited, so please sign up early!
Class cost: $275
$75 deposit saves your spot
Inga Muscio is the author of Rose: Love in Violent Times, Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil, and Cunt: A Declaration of Independence.
Lessons in Forgiveness
New Fiction by Juliet Waller Pruzan
I’ve come to this class called “Lessons in Forgiveness”
We are sitting in uneven rows, a bakers dozen. Everyone looks down at their desk, studies the knotted branch that threatens to tap the window, at a finger, at no one to the left.
At no one to the right.
The teacher walks in. She writes her name on the board in chalk so we already know she is old fashioned. She is not old. Just fashioned. Her name is Ms. Murphy and we are left to wonder if she’s single or stubborn.
She tells us to move our chairs into a circle. This is noisy. Ms. Murphy gives us a look and we all lift with our knees and finish in silence.
She takes off her left mitten, did I mention that she is wearing red mittens? She takes off the left one. She takes off the right one and holds her hand high.
It is incomplete, that hand.
Her mouth, I now see, is specific. The teeth in there had long loved a thumb.
Her right hand is missing the thumb.
When I notice this, I get a feeling. It’s a feeling I’m not proud of. I notice she is missing a thumb and I feel, all of a sudden, like I have swallowed it.
Swallowed her thumb.
Without further explanation we are given some tasks. We write letters to each other. We pass around a single piece of chewing gum, make a heart shape out of it, and stick it to the floor.
Ms. Murphy sends us outside and we find scooters. Together we ride through the evening campus and out to the main road. Together we go down the sidewalk and back.
We get handouts on calamities caused by people asleep when they should be awake. Lighthouse Keepers are number three.
“Finish these sentences,” says Ms. Murphy. “Lizzy Borden had an axe.”
“She gave her mother forty whacks,” we all say in chorus.
“Olly, Olly,” she croons.
“Oxen free,” we sing.
“If you’re happy and you know it,” she says with no joy.
“Clap your hands,” we say through tears.
“Knock, knock,” Ms. Murphy asks but we don’t get to answer because she leaves the room in ten quick steps. It would be satisfying to measure the imprints of her shoes, each one 3.75 inches from the next.
We hold our breath until we see her outside the window, sitting on the knotted branch. She has climbed the tree, despite her right hand being unevolved.
Someone opens the window and she crawls down our human ladder and back into the room.
It hurts the place on our arms that has no name, the meaty space below the elbow. We cry together until we are all the most ugly and then we feel refreshed.
It’s time to go. We are each given a lunch box size bag of our childhood chip. We talk about how long Doritos have been around but how Fritos are better.
Juliet Waller Pruzan is a choreographer, playwright, and teaching artist living in Seattle.
New Online Summer Classes with Ariel Gore
Two New Summer Classes with Ariel Gore
Summer classes fill up fast — please register early!
Lit Star Summer Session
June 15 – mid-August
A new session of Lit Star Training — the 8-week writing course taught by Ariel Gore — starts June 15th and runs through mid-August. Writers in Lit Star Training spend at least a few hours each week on their writing and online critiques. You can log in any time of the day or night. Writers in the group are new and seasoned, wanting to work on memoir or fiction. The class works as well for those writing to weekly assignments (with no big projects in mind) and for people who are starting or working on existing book projects.
The class is $275 — a $90 deposit will hold your spot. You can pay the deposit right here:
* * *
NEW! Turning Life into Literature
Reading and Writing the New Memoir
June 29 – August 24
We’ll spend the summer sharpening our craft by delving into eight classic memoirs of the 20th and 21st centuries (as well as selected passages from eight more). With group discussion and short writing exercises based on our readings, we’ll deepen our understanding of the evolving art of the contemporary memoir and come away prepared to tell our stories not just as whiney kids who know how to write but as literary artists working in a real and radical tradition. This class will require reading a book a week (reading list will be available a few weeks early so that slower readers can get a head start) and will include shorter writing exercises than the regular Lit Star Training class.
The class costs $265 — a deposit of $85 saves your spot
You can pay right here:
Ariel Gore is a fabulous workshop facilitator; I’ve been taking classes from her since 2001. In each of the workshops, she brings together a diverse group of writers with varying degrees of competency; and, whether the writer is seasoned or a beginner, she understands exactly where each person is coming from and she meets them there. Not only did I find my unique voice, I learned how to be a thoughtful listener and how to provide insightful critique. I would recommend her workshops to anyone interested in memoir and the art of a good story.
—Lani Jo Leigh
Ariel’s workshops jumpstarted my psyche. I’m back into looking at the world as a writer instead of as a would-be writer. I have her to thank for that. Workshops are almost at your own pace. Always encouraging. She has a knack for assembling a great group of writers together every time.
—Margaret Elysia Garcia
Ariel Gore’s writing workshop pushed me past the borders of my creativity and into an exciting unknown place of writing within myself. If you’ve ever put to pen to paper and wondered what you were really capable of Ariel’s workshop will take you there.
—Gabrielle Rivera
I throughly enjoy Ariel’s workshops. Writers from a variety of backgrounds gather together, bringing in work with all kinds of themes, and as each piece is workshopped, Ariel’s ear for the crucial aspects of great storytelling kicks right in. Her feedback is thoughtful, insightful, precise, and multilayered.
—Bonnie Ditlevsen
When I started writing with Ariel I had zero idea how to write for audience. In work shopping with her, I have found my voice and with practice have found different ways to formulate story. I have learned how to incorporate dialogue and am so much more confident with my work. I recommend this workshop to all aspiring, practicing, and practiced writers.
—Krystee Sidwell
May Intensive with Ariel Gore
This year we’re offering the spring intensive taught by Ariel Gore in late May. You’ll get 12 assignment in 12 days May 20th to 31st. The intensives allow you to generate lots of new material quickly and are great for jump starting your creative brain or a new project.
The intensive costs $145. You can pay right here:
Spring Classes in the Kitchen
Greetings & Happy Almost-Spring,
It’s time to sign up for the Springtime online writing workshops taught by Ariel Gore.
A new session of Lit Star Training — the 8-week writing course taught by Ariel Gore — starts March 16th and runs through mid-May. Writers in Lit Star Training spend at least a few hours each week on their writing and online critiques. You can log in any time of the day or night. Writers in the group are new and seasoned, wanting to work on memoir or fiction. The class works as well for those writing to weekly assignments (with no big projects in mind) and for people who are starting or working on existing book projects.
The class is $275 — a $90 deposit will hold your spot. You can pay the deposit right here:
And this year we’re offering the spring intensive taught by Ariel Gore in late May. You’ll get 12 assignment in 12 days May 20th to 31st. The intensives allow you to generate lots of new material quickly and are great for jump starting your creative brain or a new project.
The intensive costs $145. You can pay right here:
New zine from Ariel
I made a new zine called On the Mend. It fits in your pocket and has stories and drawings and recipes for pie and cupcakes and New Mexican red chile sauce. Not to mention advice from Punk Rock Miss Manners…
You can get a copy for $4 (free shipping). Beautifully printed by Scout Books at Pinball Publishing in Portland, Oregon. Thanks for ordering.
Spring Writing Workshop with Ariel Gore
LIT STAR TRAINING – SPRING SESSION
8-Week Online Class Taught by Ariel Gore
March 16 – May 12, 2013
This class is your springtime creative jolt — for new and experienced writers wanting to work on either memoir or fiction — we’ll make time to write, create new material with weekly deadlines, and improve our craft with practice and critique. Appropriate for writers working on longer projects as well as those who want to write to weekly assignments and produce short essays and stories. The pace is quick and energizing–you won’t even have time to worry about creative blocks.
Class consists of online discussion/critique.
Class size is limited, so please sign up early. $275
$90 deposit saves your spot – balance due when class starts
Ariel Gore is a fabulous workshop facilitator; I’ve been taking classes from her since 2001. In each of the workshops, she brings together a diverse group of writers with varying degrees of competency; and, whether the writer is seasoned or a beginner, she understands exactly where each person is coming from and she meets them there. Not only did I find my unique voice, I learned how to be a thoughtful listener and how to provide insightful critique. I would recommend her workshops to anyone interested in memoir and the art of a good story.
—Lani Jo Leigh
Ariel’s workshops jumpstarted my psyche. I’m back into looking at the world as a writer instead of as a would-be writer. I have her to thank for that. Workshops are almost at your own pace. Always encouraging. She has a knack for assembling a great group of writers together every time.
—Margaret Elysia Garcia
Ariel Gore’s writing workshop pushed me past the borders of my creativity and into an exciting unknown place of writing within myself. If you’ve ever put to pen to paper and wondered what you were really capable of Ariel’s workshop will take you there.
—Gabrielle Rivera
I throughly enjoy Ariel’s workshops. Writers from a variety of backgrounds gather together, bringing in work with all kinds of themes, and as each piece is workshopped, Ariel’s ear for the crucial aspects of great storytelling kicks right in. Her feedback is thoughtful, insightful, precise, and multilayered.
—Bonnie Ditlevsen
When I started writing with Ariel I had zero idea how to write for audience. In work shopping with her, I have found my voice and with practice have found different ways to formulate story. I have learned how to incorporate dialogue and am so much more confident with my work. I recommend this workshop to all aspiring, practicing, and practiced writers.
—Krystee Sidwell