2024-2025 Courses
We have three courses this year, with different genres and themes. Two courses will be offered in person on Saturday mornings, and one course will be online during the evening. In all courses, students will work on completing original creative work for publication in our annual anthology SPINE.
Poetry (in person):
Instructors: Aubrie Dickson & Aniaha Ortiz
“I can’t be a singular expression of myself, there’s too many parts, too many spaces, too many manifestations, too many lines, too many curves, too many troubles, too many journeys, too many mountains, too many rivers, so many.”
—from Solange Knowles’s “Can I Hold the Mic (Interlude)”
In this course, students will explore themselves by channeling their culture, memory, passions, and poetic form in ways both new and familiar. We will honor the varying backgrounds of students as inherent sources of knowledge while navigating writing and revision as both sacred and collaborative.
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.
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
―Audre Lorde
Fiction (in person)
Instructors: Nate DeChambeau and Kelsey West
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 that are applicable across all genres: crafting compelling plots, building and developing memorable characters, and creating stories that matter and resonate with readers. 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, build confidence in expressing their thoughts and opinions to their peers, 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.
Online Fiction (virtual)
Instructor: Noah Buckley
Do you ever daydream about stepping out of one world and into another? About the space between the stars and the motes of magic just beyond our sight?
In this course, we step into the vast space of possibility, incorporating fantastical and futurist storytelling elements as we learn to write new worlds into existence, as we populate those worlds with complex characters, as we explore all the strange and weird and wonderful places the imagination leads. In the process, we’ll explore the essential elements of captivating storytelling, carefully considering the craft techniques of our favorite fantasy and science-fiction authors before applying those techniques to our own writing.
By the end of the workshop, we’ll have a few pages of thoughtful and entertaining storytelling ready for publication in SPINE and elsewhere.
2024-2025 Program Calendar
Weekly workshops are scheduled on Saturdays in person from 10-1, or Thursdays online after school. Saturday’s in-person classes also include a free lunch program with fun activities and development workshops.
Important Dates and Class Schedules
- Applications - Open August 26; deadline September 20.
- Orientation - September 28, 2024: Our mandatory orientation for in person students will be September 28, 2024. Online students will receive a separate orientation on their first day of class.
- First Day of Class - October 5, 2024: Online students will start class the first week of October, 2024. In person students will start class on Saturday, October 5, 2024, including the free lunch program. Lunch programming is a mandatory part of the EmersonWRITES program for in-person students, and includes fun activities alongside development workshops.
- Regular Classes - October 5 through December 14, 2024:
- Saturdays (in person) 10am - 1pm, October 5 - December 14, 2024
- Online Class Days TBD, first week of October - week of December 9, 2024
- Showcase Rehearsal (January 18, 2025) & Showcase (January 25, 2025): Students will celebrate and share their published work from SPINE with family and friends during our annual showcase with rehearsal on Saturday, January 18, 2025 and Showcase on Saturday, January 25, 2025. Details will be forthcoming.