FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS & WORKSHOPS
NYWC-Style Drop-In Workshops led by Michele Gilliam
Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays
August 5 – 28
12:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET via Zoom
Grief is easier to overcome when we embrace the same togetherness that links much of our pain. These free summer virtual writing workshops are not officially a part of NYWC, but we will be using the organization’s workshop model to ground these sessions. All genres of writing are allowed, all levels of experience are welcome.
REGISTER HERE
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Mythologizing the Self led by Alisha Acquaye
Sundays
August 18 – September 22
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET via Zoom
A creative writing workshop centering magical realism, myth, afrofuturism, folklore and speculating the infinite possibilities of existence. This workshop ($300) is for Black writers across all genders and sexualities. There are two partial scholarships available for Black trans and nonbinary writers. APPLY HERE.
Course includes:
- A syllabus filled with fantastical and haunting literature/art from Black creatives
- Original writing prompts to generate new stories
- Feedback from myself (facilitator) and participating writers
- Weekly solo writing assignments
This workshop is for Black writers across all genders and sexualities. There are two partial scholarships available for Black trans and nonbinary writers. Apply here.
Due to the virtual nature of this workshop, there are no refunds or exchanges.
A percentage of the proceeds from this workshop will be donated to organizations supporting Palestine, Congo and Sudan’s liberation.
Reach out to Alisha to enroll.
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Weekend Words led by BWP Participants
Al-Lateef Farmer and Donnie Moreland
Every Saturday
10:00 a.m. ET via Zoom
A Saturday virtual writing workshop for sprints, prompt-driven writing workshops, and fellowship for Black writers. Register for a workshop here.
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Emotional Historians
Emotional Historians is a six-week creative writing class run by author (and NYWC friend!, Jon Sands). Emotional Historians features:
- Small, highly interactive Zoom classes (around 20 people per section)
- Workshops run between two-and-a-half and three hours
- All experience levels are encouraged
- The cost is a sliding scale from $200-$325 with some scholarships available
- Follow @iAmJonSands on IG to know when workshops are posted. You can also email him at sands.jonathan@gmail.com to be on the email list that gets advance notice
In the world of people, celebration is often laced with melancholy, joy is a border that surrounds sorrow, and fear is usually one doorbell away from bravery. So, how the fork can we construct poems that acknowledge a complicated and dynamic world? How do we avoid writing that transforms us into caricatures? How do we convey what it feels like to be us, alive at the onset of a new millennium? If the job of an artist is that of an emotional historian, then we must create poems that are as multi-dimensional and layered as the people who write them. If we’re to properly archive, we must ask ourselves not whether this is a great poem, but rather, is this today’s poem?
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Amherst Writers & Artists
Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) is a non-profit founded by Pat Schneider, who trained NYWC founder Aaron Zimmerman in the AWA Method in the late 90s. Pat developed her method while writing with women living in a housing project in Chicopee, MA (beautifully documented in the film Tell Me Something I Can’t Forget). At our foundation is the belief that writing as an art form belongs to all people and that the teaching of craft can be done without damage to a writer’s self-esteem.
They offer online groups via Zoom every month (sliding scale $10-20). You can attend 8 of those groups per year with their $5/month Writer Membership (which comes with other great benefits, too). In addition to their open monthly groups, they also have an ongoing series of groups for Caregivers and one-off affinity writing sessions for BIPOC and LGBTQ writers.
They will soon expand to serve additional populations, like writers with chronic illness, under the banner of their Power of Story series, which they piloted with the Caregivers program. To stay up to date with them and get opportunities to write delivered to your inbox, you can sign up for their mailing list. They’re also on Facebook and Instagram.
They train and support a network of AWA-trained writing workshop leaders both online and in-person across the US, Canada, and beyond. They encourage you to learn more about those facilitators in their directory or check out their upcoming groups on our Event Calendar.
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Writers Collective of Canada
NYWC’s writers are welcome to join any of the numerous open virtual writing workshops WCC offers. Visit WCC’s website and registration page to learn more.
ORGANIZATIONS & WORKSHOPS FOR ALL WRITERS
Adirondack Center for Writing
FREE and DONATION-BASED WORKSHOPS
Providing in-person writing workshops on different genres & themes, in Saranac Lake, NY.
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Belle’s Hell
WORKSHOPS FOR THOSE WHO PLAN TO PUBLISH
Best-selling author Jennifer Belle leads inspiring, challenging, and fun weekly workshops, in person and on Zoom, affectionately known as Belle’s Hell, for serious writers who plan to publish. Email Jbelle2010@gmail.com or DM on Instagram @jenniferbellewriter
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Blaise Writers Workshop
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Providing inclusive writing workshops, webinars, write-ins & coaching.
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The Center for Fiction
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Provides virtual and in-person writing workshops, reading groups, and events. In-person events hosted in Brooklyn, NY.
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Fledgling Writing Workshops
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Offers writing workshops, 1:1 coaching, and generative events virtually and in-person around NYC.
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Gotham Writers Workshop
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Offers writing workshops, 1:1 coaching, and generative events virtually and in-person around NYC.
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In Surreal Life
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS*
*Scholarships avaliable for BIPOC writers
Online writing community that offers prompts, group of writers who you share and discuss your writing or anything else, as well as visiting artists open-mics, and 1-1 editing sessions. October 2024 ISL applications are now open!
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Lost Lit
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
*currently on summer hiatus*
Providing AWA-style in-person writing workshops on a seasonal basis in Brooklyn, NY.
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Paragraph: Workspace for Writers
MEMBERSHIP AND/OR FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
A virtual community of writers connecting with established editors, literary agents and publishing professionals, including free access to monthly craft talks, agent roundtables, Pitch Wars, literary salons, writing groups and workshops, and more.
Membership is $25 a month.
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The Poetry Society
FREE and FOR PAY EVENTS
Brooklyn based in-person and online events, readings, workshops, and seminars centered around poetry. Events feature well known and up-and-coming poets.
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Sackett Street Writers
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Providing online and in-person theme and genre based writing workshops.
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The Writers Room
FOR PAY WRITING SPACE
NYC’s Only In-Person Writing Workspace Entirely Dedicated to Writing. The Writers Room, open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, offers clean, quiet, affordable workspace at a fee subsidized by grants, gifts and donations for writers writing in any genre, any language and in any phase of their vocation.
ORGANIZATIONS & WORKSHOPS FOR BIPOC WRITERS
Asian American Writers Workshop
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
Provides writing workshops of different genres and themes for AAPI writers.
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Cave Canem
APPLICATION-BASED WORKSHOPS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Cave Canem is a nonprofit organization, committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of Black poets. For New York-based poets interested in honing their craft, Cave Canem offers the Regional Workshop or, for more advanced poets, The Cave Canem Fellowship, which centers around our flagship annual Retreat.
Applications for the Regional Workshops in NYC and Houston are now open!
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Galleyway
OPPORTUNITIES LISTING
Galleyway champions diverse voices in poetry, literature, tv, film, and theatre, spotlighting opportunities for BIPOC writers every month.
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Hurston Wright Foundation
FREE and FOR PAY WORKSHOPS
In-Person and virtual writing workshops for Black writers.
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In the Cut LA
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
In the Cut is an education and networking company that prepares Black creatives and other people of color for careers in the entertainment industry.
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Midnight & Indigo
FOR PAY WORKSHOPS AND WRITE-INS
In addition to publishing anthologies and a standalone literary journal, Midnight & Indigo publishes via our online platform, facilitates online writing classes for Black women writers, and provides developmental editing services.
ORGANIZATIONS & WORKSHOPS FOR YOUTH WRITERS
826NYC
APPLICATION-BASED WORKSHOPS
Writing workshops and book clubs for low-income kids grades 1-8 and teen writers collectives. Workshop costs range from free to various scholarship levels available for students.
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