Summer/Fall 2026
Semester Learning Activities

How to Write Annotations

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 3:00pm-4:30pm PT / 6:00pm-7:30pm ET

Lorinda Toledo

Required for the Bluebell Cohort.

As literary artists, annotations offer students an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with the stories and poems they read in ways that nurture the stories and poems they write. But what exactly are annotations? How to begin? And what could we possibly have to say? 

This workshop will take a hands-on approach to address these questions and explore critical review. You’ll leave with a more efficient approach to writing annotations that bring value to your work, and a better understanding of potential topics that most intrigue you.

Designing a Flexible Workshop Syllabus 

Wednesday, July 15, 2026 3:30pm-4:45pm PT / 6:30pm-7:45pm ET

Joshua Roark

Designed for all students who are interested in teaching creative writing, this seminar includes an overview of virtual teaching opportunities, the pedagogical strategies of a successful workshop, methods for decolonizing your learning environment, and an examination of model syllabi that meet the contemporary demands of a writing teacher. Attention will be given to tools writers can employ to sell their services virtually in a startup of their own or through a community organization.

Required for all incoming Post-MFA Certificate Students

Creating Romantic Tension on the Page 

Saturday, August 1, 2026 12:00pm-1:15pm PT / 3:00pm-4:15pm ET

Natashia Deón

A little embarrassing, right? A teacher teaching students to write...intimacy. Let's start by calling it chemistry. How do you write chemistry? Not just flirtation. Not just banter. Not just two hot people standing near each other under a moonlit sky. How do you create that charged, swoony, can’t-look-away feeling on the page and make it feel real?

That pulse of attraction is part of what keeps readers turning pages. It’s why romance works. It’s why intimacy matters. But while chemistry can feel magical, it’s not beyond the reach of craft. There are ways to build it, shape it, and deepen it so the emotional and physical stakes feel true.

Because romantic tension does not appear automatically. (OK, I'll say it: Do not assume that the situation automatically evokes the mood). A kiss is not chemistry. Proximity is not chemistry. Even desire, on its own, is not chemistry. The real work happens below the surface, in what the characters want, fear, notice, avoid, misinterpret, and risk.

In this workshop, we’ll break down the craft of writing attraction and emotional tension so that your romantic scenes feel grounded, believable, and impossible to resist.

Whatever is Lost is Worshipped

Wednesday, September 16, 2026 4:00pm-5:15pm PT / 7:00pm-8:15pm ET

Safia Elhillo

In this seminar, we will consider Mahmoud Darwish’s assertion that “whatever is lost is worshipped” and examine poems that take on the elegiac form, filling an absence with language and elevating what is lost to the realm of the eternal, the divine.

Let’s Get Lyric! (It’s Not Just for Poets)

Wednesday, September 23, 2026 3:00pm-4:15pm PT / 6:00pm-7:15pm ET

Terry Wolverton

When we think of “lyric writing,” our minds go to poetry, but the lyric impulse is alive in all creative writing genres. The human brain processes lyricism “outside the window of conscious awareness,” so it provides the reader a palpable experience as they read.

We’ll look at how techniques of lyricism infuse fiction, creative nonfiction, and dramatic writing, as well as poetry—syntax, sonic techniques, rhythm and cadence, white space, associative leaps, structure. I’ll provide presentation; you’ll offer up discussion, and we’ll practice at least one exercise of lyric writing.

Experience a Real Writer's Room

Saturday, October 8, 2026 6:00pm-7:30pm PT / 9:00pm-10:30pm ET

Mark Hudis, moderated by Colette Freedman

There are a lot of “how to write for television” books and classes. Most of them are terrible. Why? Because most of them are authored or taught by people who’ve never been within 100 miles of an actual writers’ room. This class is different. Long-time TV writer Mark Hudis (whose credits include That ’70’s Show, True Blood, Nurse Jackie, Elementary) will create an actual writers’ room and show you how a story is broken, outlined and scripted. It’ll be fun, useful and best of all, authentic.