Online Writing Workshops

Nova Science Fiction Writing Workshop April 2025
TBD time (flexible but likely Sundays late afternoon/early evening)
In this 4-week creative writing workshop, we will perform a close reading of Samuel Delany’s Nova, analyzing its complex themes through the lenses of influential literary theorists like Hortense Spillers. As a group, we will explore the novel’s use of tarot and science fiction pastiche, as well as how Delany pushes the boundaries of genre and narrative.

What You’ll Gain from the Course:

Deep Analysis of Nova: Understand Samuel Delany's Nova through a critical lens, exploring the novel’s literary and philosophical dimensions.
Familiarity with Literary Theory Concepts: Engage with scholars like Hortense Spillers and others to examine how theory can illuminate new possibilities in speculative fiction writing.
Speculative Fiction Techniques: Learn about speculative fiction devices and how to implement them into your own creative work.
Interdisciplinary Exploration: This course is open to writers and artists from all genres and disciplines, encouraging creative exchange and growth across mediums.
Supplemental Readings & Films: Our discussions will be supplemented with critical readings, literary critiques, and relevant science fiction films to inspire new ideas.

This open-genre workshop is open to all, including interdisciplinary artists, writers of all levels, and those passionate about expanding their knowledge of speculative fiction and literary theory. Whether you're an established writer or just starting, this course offers a space for exploration, experimentation, and growth.

Workshop Goals
By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped four discrete pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Nova, Samuel Delany

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively April 6th, 2025.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2-3 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be $210 per student.

*Contact me about paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 2.

Cohort Outcomes
Students from my course cohorts have gone on to publish their workshop writing at journals, in full-length book manuscripts with presses, and as chapbooks, including a work written and workshopped in my 2022 Dhalgren course which was included on Dennis Cooper's end of the year best of list.

Here's an interview about my Stars in My Pocket... Course in 2023.

Contact Me

Ulysses Trans Genre Writing Workshop October 28th through December 16th, TBD time (flexible but likely Sundays late afternoon/early evening)
In this eight week workshop, we will complete a reading of James Joyce's Ulysses, considering it through the lenses of various theorists such as Lacan and Derrida. We will contemplate a James Baldwin quote referencing the novel: "Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken." We will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own experimental fictions and self-mythologies by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together.

The course readings will familiarize students with experimental literary devices and possibilities to generate new speculative works. Our Ulysses reading will be supplemented with selected critical and literary readings. This is an open genre course.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped eight discrete pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Ulysses, James Joyce

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively October 28th, 2024.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2-3 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be $425 per student.

*Contact me about paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 3.

Here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.

Contact Me

Ice & Nova War Machines
A Deleuzian Science Fiction Writing Workshop August through first week of September, 2024, TBD
In this workshop, we will apply Deleuze & Guattari's notion of the War Machine to our speculative fiction texts. As we consume Samuel Delany's "Nova" and Anna Kavan's "Ice," students will consider how speculative fiction can delimit the incursions of apocalyptic absolute exteriority. As we examine these speculative landscapes, we will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own speculative fiction terrains in word(s) by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together.

The course readings will familiarize students with science fiction and science fiction poetry devices and possibilities to generate new speculative works. Our science fiction readings will be supplemented with selected critical and literary readings, focusing on the relevant chapters from A Thousand Plateaus. This is an open genre course.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped four discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Nova, Samuel Delany
	Ice, Anna Kavan

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively the first weekend of August.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be €325 or roughly $350 per student. This course can also be taken as a three week workshop, focusing on either Ice or Nova. The cost for only half the course is €170.

*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $30 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 2.

Here's an interview I did about the Delany Workshop I ran in November of 2023 and here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in Periodicities.

Contact Me

Science Fiction Writing Workshop Late May through June, 2024, TBD
In this four week workshop, we will consider language as technology, and also as weaponry with radical and reactionary possibilities. As we devour Samuel Delany's "Babel-17," students will perform a reading of diglossal sound architectures, in all their (anti)productive force. As we examine these speculative landscapes, we will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own speculative fiction terrains in word(s) by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped four discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Babel-17, Samuel Delany

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively at the end of May, 2024.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be €210 or roughly $225 per student.

*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 2.

Here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.

Contact Me

THIS CLASS HAS BEEN DEFERRED TO ANOTHER YEAR Anti-fascist Gay Literature: A Writing Workshop May, 2024 Date and Time TBD
This five week workshop will center on a reading of Agustín Gómez-Arcos' The Carnivorous lamb to consider Gay Liberationist dreams.

We will be reading supplementary poetry and queer theory, PDFs of which will be provided. The course readings will familiarize students with literary devices and possibilities to generate new works. This is an open genre course.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped five discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	The Carnivorous lamb, Agustín Gómez-Arcos

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively the first week of May, 2024.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 1/2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be 275 per student.

*Contact me about paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 3.

Here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.

Contact Me

Science Fiction Writing Workshop October, 2023 Date and Time TBD
In this five week workshop, we will consider the polyvalence of wastelands by passing rapidly amidst the desert and the frozen, the extra and intraterrestrial. As we devour Samuel Delany's "Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand," students will perform a reading of what it means to be a waste a human wasting a waste/land, in all its (anti)productive force. As we examine these speculative landscapes, we will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own speculative fiction terrains in word(s) by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped five discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel Delany

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively the week of October 15th, 2023.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 1/2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be 240 per student.

*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 3.

Here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.

Contact Me

Science Fiction Writing
May through June/July 2023, Tuesdays 5 CST (tentatively)
In this eight week workshop, we will be investigating the possibilities of science fiction tropes, as kitsch culture and/or portals to radical social rupture. We will independently consume assigned course media, including science fiction poetry and film, as instigatory means of producing our own speculative works. We will particularly focus on the book Dhalgren* and I will also provide PDFs of selected stories and critical readings (from writers like Octavia Butler and Foucault). We will think about space vampires and narrative time. We will consider the speculative with respect to avant-garde language in Girondo's work. Students will share and workshop weekly writing assignments. This is an open genre course so writing in any genre will be accepted.

*Repeat readers of Dhalgren welcome

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped seven discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Dhalgren

Start Date
Classes will tentatively begin in May, 2023.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 1/2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be $425* per student.

*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 3.

Review of the course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.
Contact Me

THE POIESIS OF THE WASTES:
Science Fiction Writing Workshop Date and Time TBD
Is environment a speculative field? In this eight week workshop, we will consider the polyvalence of wastes by passing rapidly amongst the desert and the frozen. With an emphasis on speculative fiction novels from Samuel Delany and Anna Kavan, Students will perform a reading of what it means to be a waste a wasting a waste/land, in all its (anti)productive force. As we examine these speculative landscapes, we will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own wastelands in word(s) by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together.

The course readings will familiarize students with science fiction devices and possibilities to generate new speculative works. Our science fiction readings will be supplemented with selected critical and literary readings. This is an open genre course.

Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped seven discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.

Course Book List

	Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel Delany
	Ice, Anna Kavan
	Outgoing Vessel, Ursula Andkjær Olsen

Start Date
Classes will begin tentatively in October, 2022.

Technical Details
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 1/2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.

Cost
The Course will be $425* per student (around 53.13 per weekly 2.5 hour session).

*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.

Course Cancellation and Refunds Policy
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $20 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 3.

Here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in periodicities.

Contact Me