Teaching Approach

A great way to get a new perspective for revision: Spread out your manuscript to get a bird’s eye view at how the sections work together.

A great way to get a new perspective for revision: Spread out your manuscript to get a bird’s eye view at how the sections work together.

Teaching Approach

Whether you’re a longtime writer or you're considering writing your first essay or story, my writing workshops can help you draft new material, understand how to work with what you’ve got, and learn what makes essays and stories appeal to your readers. One of my primary goals is to help writers identify their own individual aesthetic through our readings, craft lessons, and discussions. I tend to emphasize voice and narrative structure as areas for writers to focus on.

My students of all levels say they come away from my classes with a sense of the rich possibilities in their work, themselves, and their daily lives. In class, we write, we read, we talk, and we imagine--and we have a great time doing it. 

Classes include:

  • writing exercises that allow you to tap into your work in fresh and interesting ways.

  • readings and discussion of published work with an eye toward what we can learn from other writers.

  • readings and discussions of each other's work with supportive, craft-centered comments about what's working and what's not.

  • my feedback on manuscripts.

  • learning and understanding each other while having fun.

Unless otherwise noted, my classes are in-person, not online, in western Colorado.