Creative Writing Boot Camp

Bring your laptop or a pen and plenty of paper—this creative writing boot camp will shock you out of stasis and into practice. Over two days, in two six-hour sessions, Jenny Pritchett will help you tease out the creative impulse that has lain dormant beneath obligations, fear, laziness, or just plain confusion at how to get started.

"Sometimes taking a class is the only way to get back to your creative practice," says Jenny. "Signing up is the first step. And then, when you show up to class, pen and paper in hand, with all the hopes and fears of any lapsed or beginning writer—you're halfway there."

Come writers, come poets, come essayists: Writers of all types and levels are invited to delve into the fundamentals of craft and process in this fun, funny, and encouraging urban retreat. We'll read stories that inspire us and other examples of good writing—and some bad, just for fun—brainstorm ideas, and complete a variety of free-writing exercises (some short and automatic and some more involved and tiered). We'll dive into lively discussions and pause for brief workshops, which help us reflect, connect the dots, and generate new ideas as well as break through the fears that keep us from showing up for our own work. Throughout the weekend, students will engage with their personal observations and experience—the core to their authentic voices—and emerge with ideas and inspiration about how to keep going the day AFTER class ends.