June 8-August 17
asynchronous via WetInk
It’s been more than a year since a strange virus appeared in China, ripped through New York, and shut down the world. Our lives are marked; some of our family and friends have been lost; our jobs are forever changed or gone; our parenting has mutated; our friendships have gone online or imploded. Now, with businesses reopening and vaccines increasingly available, the question lies before us: How do we make sense of what has happened?
A year ago, during the heart of shutdown, I ran a class called “Writing the Pandemic” to chronicle the rare moment we found ourselves living through. In this follow up, we’ll tell the story of what we lived. Over the course of 10 weeks, you’ll move intentionally through different levels of your pandemic experience, recounting how COVID-19 shifted your relationships, changed your work, altered your environmental impact, affected your mental and physical health, required that you wrestle with civil rights and social unrest, impacted our politics, and more. We’ll read essays written during the pandemic and other works peripheral to its themes, and you’ll move through both writing prompts and more formal essay assignments, which your peers will have opportunity to comment on. Since the goal of the class is integration, this 10-week period includes two weeks simply for digestion of the material— one in the middle of class, and one near the end. You’ll have the opportunity to join a WhatsApp voice discussion group, and for an additional fee, to receive my feedback on your work.
The pandemic may not be over by the time class ends; I sense our threshold crossing out of this experience may be messier, less clear, than our descent in. Yet it’s my hope that, at the end, you’ll find yourself more anchored in your experience and aware of its wisdoms—having grieved some of its losses, noticed its initiations, and surrounded by the beginnings of pieces of writing that can minister to us all.
Important information:
This class is asynchronous to allow for community building across time zones, without scheduling, and within the fluctuations of a potentially lethargic or zoomed-burn-out-filled life. (Not familiar with Wet Ink, our hosting platform? Check it out here.) Asynchronous means there is no live component of the class that occurs at a particular time.
Shortly before the class start date, you will receive a welcome email and invitation to WetInk, our hosting platform. At the end of class, you will automatically be emailed a file that contains your work from the course. (This email will not include others’ work or content beyond your responses.) You are responsible for saving any material you would like access to after the class. I ask that you limit these materials to personal use.
The WhatsApp group is an optional add-on that enables you to enjoy more intimate, real-time conversation about the topics of the class, forming a community that is sometimes elusive in chat-only settings.
Although I wish I could offer as deep a sliding scale as I did last year, the fixed costs of WetInk, our hosting platform, prevent this. Please reach out to my assistant Kristen if you need to access a payment plan beyond what is offered here.
About the Sliding Scale:
When you register, you’ll be asked to choose the sliding scale payment level that works for you. Please note that a deposit of half the class investment is required at all levels of the sliding scale unless you make an alternate arrangement with Kristen. We aim to have all class payments completed by the end of our time together.
While I am dedicated to offering routes for all writers to access opportunities in their creative lives, sliding scales only work if writers at different tiers balance one another other out, supporting the cost of the class collectively rather than individually. Level 3 is the true cost of the class. For this reason, I request that you not use add-ons unless you are paying into the course at Level 3 or higher (…since paying at Level 1 but adding on means you actually can afford a higher level).
If you experience systemic advantages and privileges, consider paying at the higher tiers to make possible extending opportunities to folks in all situations.
Using a payment plan option may make Level 3 or higher accessible to you, over the course of a 10-week class.
Level 1- $175
Level 2- $200
Level 3- $250
Level 4- $300
Level 5- $350
Level 6- $425
Add-ons: (Level 3 & up)
—Essay feedback: $100 for a response to your class essay of up to 2500 words, delivered via WetInk in the context of the course
—Participation in community-building WhatsApp voice discussion group for the duration of class (7 slots; first come, first served): $50
To add on essay feedback or WhatsApp participation separately, click here.