2025-2026 Courses
In-person Courses
"The Magical Craft of Fiction"
Wednesdays, Fiction 3:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. (On campus)
Instructors: Nate DeChambeau and Jashvina Shah
Course Description:
Do you enjoy telling stories? Do you want to create unique characters and engaging worlds? Are you looking for a community of like-minded peers who are just as dedicated to the craft of writing as you are?
Throughout this course, we will study and discuss various aspects of writing: crafting compelling plots, developing memorable characters, and creating stories that matter and resonate with readers. Students of all skill levels and genres are welcome as we explore what it means to craft stories in fantasy, sci-fi, and realist settings. We will study the techniques of a diverse selection of contemporary authors and emulate them through fun prompts, exercises, and games. Students will also thoughtfully workshop each other’s writing, gaining a stronger understanding of how to evaluate their own work.
Students will develop their writing abilities and learn additional skills that will help them outside the classroom, such as in applications for jobs or colleges. By the end of the course, students will have created several pages of polished writing ready to be published in SPINE or elsewhere.
Poetry of the Self, With Purpose
Wednesdays, Poetry 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (On campus)
Instructors: Aniaha Ortiz and Katya Zinn
Course Description:
“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change — it can not only move us, it makes us move.” — Ossie Davis
A phrase we hear often in poetry workshops is to find your voice. What do you want to say, and why? Who do you stand beside or behind? In solidarity, comfort, or support? What do you wish to defend? Where could you find your voice in the fight for liberation and justice worldwide? You have a voice, and this workshop is dedicated to teaching you how to use it. Powerfully.
In this course, students will explore themselves by channeling their culture, memory, passions, and poetic form in ways both new and familiar. We honor the varying backgrounds of students as inherent sources of knowledge while navigating writing and revision as both sacred and collaborative practices. Students will read, write, and share poetry as a means of translating the conflicting yet interconnectedness of personal experience. We will explore different poetic forms as an opportunity for students to discover their unique voice and style. Poetic forms such as spoken word will be introduced in class to help students embolden their presence in the writing community and build confidence to perform their work at the EmersonWRITES Showcase. Students will leave this course with publishable work for SPINE, and, most importantly, for themselves. The goal is to encourage transformation, to eventually transform. We emerge as a vibrant community where our self-expression contributes to individual and collective liberation.
Online Courses
"Write Like an Author: Harnessing Craft Elements and Literary Tools in Your Own Writing"
Mondays, Fiction 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. on zoom
Instructor: Abby Shoults
Course Description:
Have you ever questioned why it was necessary to tell a story in outer space? Have you ever wondered why a character died at that exact moment in a story? Has it ever made you stop and wonder why an author made the choices that they did? In literature, it isn’t often that anything happens accidentally. The worlds our favorite characters live in are built out of craft elements and literary tools carefully chosen by an author.
In this class, we will learn about the tools and craft elements authors use, in order to harness them effectively in our own writing. While we read works from authors of fiction such as Kurt Vonnegut and Octavia E. Butler, we will examine everything from the fundamentals of their plot choice, to how they were able to surpass the conventional rules of writing.
This class will offer students a chance to feel confident to enter into the world of creative writing while preparing them to break the rules in their own unique way. By the end of the workshop, we’ll have a few pages of thoughtful and entertaining storytelling ready for publication in SPINE and elsewhere.
"Can I Do That? An Exploration of Hybrid Storytelling"
Thursdays, Fiction 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. on zoom
Instructor: Danny Holman
Course Description:
Humans defy categorization, and sometimes our art does, too. What happens when the stories we want to tell exceed the boundaries of conventional literature? This course explores how incorporating mixed genres and interdisciplinary forms such as poetry, photography, collages, illustrations and beyond can enhance our craft. Through reading and workshops that encourage experimentation, we will develop our own personal approaches to hybridity. Writers from all genres, styles, and experience levels are welcome, with the understanding that we will be stepping outside our comfort zones, trying new things, and learning to make productive mistakes together.
Students will leave the course with a better understanding of their own writing process and a broadened view of the storytelling possibilities open to them. They will create works of art that can be published in SPINE, but more importantly they will develop a more intimate relationship with "creation" and "art" as necessary tools for enduring the human condition.