SESSION 1: Monday, April 6 to Sunday, May 17 —SOLD OUT
SESSION 2: Monday, April 13 to Sunday, May 24 —CLOSED
SESSION 3: Monday, May 4 to Sunday, June 14
Sliding scale: $55-$555
We did not choose these times. But we live in them all the same. In this six-week asynchronous workshop, we’ll use writing as an anchor for exploring how we might live through this moment with as much presence, bravery, and beauty as possible.
We’ll start by writing our beginnings: the places our lives first intersected with COVID-19. In subsequent weeks, we’ll dig into the strange beauty of repetition; connect with the natural allies available to us in our spaces; identify the personal, ancestral, or literary lineages of loss and bravery that can guide us through this time; explore our past and current relationships to death; and, in our final week, crane our necks to see the ways our lives have already transformed. In all of this, we will generate lots of writing, seeking the angles through which this story might want to be told.
Along the way, writers will read a small number of thematically-relevant essays and stories, and will optionally submit essays for workshopping, providing a space to push forward into shape the writing generated in this class. They’ll also be placed into 5-6-person Writing Accountability pods using WhatsApp, to provide a more personalized and vibrant class experience, plus audible connection to the instructor.
Though we have not in our lifetimes experienced something like this collectively, I’m offering this class as a woman who has lived many years of her life with death’s hot breath on her neck—who has survived more than one Personal Apocalypse. I know well the hypervigilance, terror, distraction and potential meaninglessness we’re all now grappling with.
It’s my sense that anyone living through a pandemic necessarily vacillates between numbing out and turning towards the moment to fully inhabit what is happening. While both are fine, this class is for built more for those whose path is to steer into the heart of the pandemic. If the class is emotionally difficult, it’s because what we are living is, too. But what we are living is also mythic—a story among the stories brave humans have lived for thousands of years. In this class, I hope you feel mythic, which is to say I hope the normal moments of your life seem sharper, more purposeful—that you feel braver, that you become available to the invitations dangling before you.
This class is not a substitute for mental healthcare. But it has been designed with trauma sensitivity in mind, and I hope it offers a format and community that contribute to your resilience at this time. And please know that you do not have to consider yourself a writer to take this class; it’s for anyone interested in using writing to ground and process their life at this time.
The class is also a wild ride—under construction as long as you’re in it, to best offer a vessel for staying afloat.
Sessions cap at 20 writers. Should the quarantine go on longer than expected, I’ll release a continuation class for those who are interested. Please contact me should you need to access a payment plan or if this class feels essential, yet lies outside your financial reach.
FAQ
Payment: The actual value of this class is $350. Because of the nature of the pandemic, this class is running on a sliding scale from $55 to $555. I ask that you honestly assess where your income falls and whether you might be in a position to subsidize someone else’s writing experience at this time by paying at a higher level. When you click the registration button below, you will choose between tiers of cost. You are also welcome to register by Venmo-ing me any amount between $55 and $555 at @Katherine-Standefer-1. Please include your e-mail address in the comments.
Class time: This class is asynchronous to accommodate those with shoddy internet connections or complicated responsibilities. This means we do not meet at a specific time. Instead, one week of material will open each week on Sunday. There, you’ll find a number of writing prompts, lessons, and essays to read. You can work on the assignments throughout the week, whenever you have time. Our online discussions will be ongoing. You can even go back to finish previous lessons, although at any given time I will only be responding to the current week.
WhatsApp: Though somewhat unconventional, I ask that those enrolling in this class download WhatsApp onto their phones for use in small-group connection. Before the class begins, I will initiate each Writing Accountability pod of 5-6 people and explain the voice message process. This is your space to support each other through the week and dive into the material more verbally, and I’ll offer conversation prompts to get things rolling.
Workshop: During the final weeks of class, each writer will have the option of turning in an essay or excerpt of up to 1,750 words for workshopping. Writers will be expected to provide feedback for their peers, and will receive feedback from me.