Classes and Workshops
For 35 years, I've taught a wide variety of creative writing, composition, and literature classes to adults, children, college students, and incarcerated adults and teens.
I am an encouraging, practical, and inspiring teacher. I love watching students get that "aha moment" as they discover something gorgeous in a poem we are studying, or as they see a way to revise their work and more fully realize their vision for the reader. I have received awards for Excellence in Teaching from The Loft Literary Center, the University of Utah, and the Jerome Foundation. I currently teach at a variety of literary arts centers across the country - as well as at regional book festivals and conferences and in private homes in the Washington, DC area. |
Upcoming Classes
Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop
Sponsored by The Writer's Center
6 Thursdays, May 30 - June 27, 2024
7 - 9pm ET
Register soon!
Expand your poems and have fun by writing about the visual arts. Find new ways to enter your drafts and deepen your revisions by writing poems about the visual arts (ekphrastic poems). We'll read and discuss a variety of ekphrastic poems to inspire your own writing, enhance your craft skills (line, image, repetition, point of view, etc.), and explore new terrain. This class is perfect for poets looking to deepen their own creative process, write about art, and enhance their skills with feedback and revision.
Micro Memoirs
Sponsored by The Writer's Center
4 Thursdays, Aug. 8-29, 2024
7 - 9pm ET
Register soon!
Start or re-invigorate your memoir—or just create a handful of vivid vignettes—with this fun, satisfying form. Join us to explore the elements of memoir in small manageable bites. Read and discuss Micro Memoirs, also called Flash Memoir, (50-250 words) to inspire your own writing and enhance your storytelling skills. Each week, with provided prompts, you’ll write about a variety of incidents, stories, or memories while building specific craft skills (image, metaphor, point of view, rhetorical strategies to address memory “gaps,” and more). This class is perfect for poets and prose writers who want to write about their lives or family histories, get out of their writing ruts, and enhance their skills with feedback and revision.
Sponsored by The Writer's Center
6 Thursdays, May 30 - June 27, 2024
7 - 9pm ET
Register soon!
Expand your poems and have fun by writing about the visual arts. Find new ways to enter your drafts and deepen your revisions by writing poems about the visual arts (ekphrastic poems). We'll read and discuss a variety of ekphrastic poems to inspire your own writing, enhance your craft skills (line, image, repetition, point of view, etc.), and explore new terrain. This class is perfect for poets looking to deepen their own creative process, write about art, and enhance their skills with feedback and revision.
Micro Memoirs
Sponsored by The Writer's Center
4 Thursdays, Aug. 8-29, 2024
7 - 9pm ET
Register soon!
Start or re-invigorate your memoir—or just create a handful of vivid vignettes—with this fun, satisfying form. Join us to explore the elements of memoir in small manageable bites. Read and discuss Micro Memoirs, also called Flash Memoir, (50-250 words) to inspire your own writing and enhance your storytelling skills. Each week, with provided prompts, you’ll write about a variety of incidents, stories, or memories while building specific craft skills (image, metaphor, point of view, rhetorical strategies to address memory “gaps,” and more). This class is perfect for poets and prose writers who want to write about their lives or family histories, get out of their writing ruts, and enhance their skills with feedback and revision.
Feedback from Recent Participants
Voice & Tone in Persona Poems
"I am loving your class so much. Just soaking up as much as I can. Your teaching style is a really good fit for me and the selection of poems you chose for this class - i want to eat them!! Building a Poetry Chapbook
"Your class has been tremendously insightful to me and helped me think of my work differently already." "Thank you for the well structured and insightful course." Traditional & Contemporary
Poetic Forms "Thank you for the reminder to be OK with being messy and imperfect. What kind and generous words you gave us this morning. I'll take them to heart." Create a Writing Routine That Works
"The handouts were very helpful as takeaways from the class, and Melanie was super awesome." "Practical information that I can implement." "The pacing of class was perfect." |
Line Breaks: Tools of Musical Notation
"This class is fabulous! You are blowing my mind. I should have taken it long ago." Starting a Memoir
"Thank you so much-yesterday was invaluable and far exceeded already high expectations." "Thank you so much - yesterday was invaluable and far exceeded already high expectations." Revision as Discovery
"I'm looking at revision in a whole new way. The exercises you shared are a game-changer for me!" Writing for Procrastinators
"You are a fantastic instructor! You are very creative in pulling the class together with small discussions and what not. And, I love the reading assignments." "I appreciate your judgment-free class." "Your course has helped me to get started with my writing again, every day, and revitalized my passion for my book. I'm very grateful for what you've given us." Exploring Memoir
"Thank you for this class! Very motivating!" "Many thanks -- very helpful!" " Great class!" Submit Your Stuff to Literary Magazines
"Your class on submitting work was really, really great. I've taken a class in submitting work a few years ago and I have to say, yours was much more thorough." |
Reviving Stuck Poems
"Your workshop yesterday was fantastic. It has really opened up my thinking about the poems I revised during the session. A new direction in one and a connection I hadn't totally grasped in the other. I plan to use the activities in the future. Thank you for giving me these most helpful tools. I feel liberated." Write Stronger Poetry Titles
"Thank you for this workshop. You’ve given me great ideas for revision and I appreciate your worksheets; very useful and helpful!" "I really enjoyed your class this morning. I appreciate your organization and excellent teaching style. I learned so much and feel like I have new tools at my disposal to not only create better titles but to improve my poems! Thank you so much." Poetry II: Re-imagining Critique
"Thank you for leading a great workshop. It has helped me be a better reader for others and a better judge of what feedback I would like for my work." Starting a Large Writing Project
"So useful and encouraging! The principles you covered are going to stay with me!" |
Praise
- "Thank you for your class on Submitting Your Poems. I followed your excellent advice and voila! I had 3 poems accepted. This is my first publication in over 10 years. Now I'm ready to keep trying to get my work out into the world - all thanks to you."
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- "Melanie is a treasure—a quirky, committed, talented treasure. She was/is as good or better than anyone I had at my Ivy League university. Most notable, she cares.”
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