The 1455 Workshops
made for writers, led by writers
Featured Workshop
The Art of the Personal Essay
Mondays, November 8, 15, 22, 29, 2021
6:00pm—8:30pm EST
As the writer Nora Ephron famously said: “Everything is copy.” We are living through unprecedented times; each day reveals new challenges, new understandings, and new reflections on the world and our place in it. What better time to write some personal essays? The French writer Montaigne first used himself as a character in his literary investigations over four hundred years ago, and since then the personal essay has evolved to include all manner of style and inquiry: some use humor, some are fueled by memory, all are candid reflections of life and society as viewed through the intimate lens of our daily life. In class we’ll use weekly prompts, various writing exercises, and class feedback to develop work-in-progress. Essays by writers as varied as Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Natalia Ginzburg, Annie Dillard, Nora Ephron, and David Sedaris will be discussed to complement our creative work. The goal will be to have a fully finished essay or more by the end of the five-week workshop. This class is open to anyone with a notebook, and now is a good time to start taking notes. Remember: everything is copy.
Co-sponsored by Todos Santos Writers Workshop
4 Class Course
$500
Recent Workshops
Cultivating a Daily Writing Practice
Wednesdays, April 7—May 12, 2021
7:00pm—8:30pm EST
Creative Energy is our natural gift. It is the essence of who we are, the very expression of our Being itself. When we cultivate a daily writing practice, we bring ourselves into communion with this part of us. Expressing and exercising this Energy daily, we build into our lives a channel of creative magic, abundance and flow–which is always ours but often remains untapped unless we practice. When we do, our lives become expressions of the life force continuously blooming and opening through us. This 6-week workshop will help you cultivate a daily writing practice. Each week we will explore how rituals, gratitude, surrender, even doubt and play, can aid our writing so that we may express more freely, and uniquely our creative selves.
6 Class Course
$299
Get Inspired and Unstuck on Your Novel
December 30, 2020
1:00pm—2:30pm EST
Susan Henderson knows all about those writing projects that take four or more years to complete. She’s full of ideas for maintaining passion, getting through blocks, breathing life into it, and fighting self-doubt. If you need a shot of adrenaline and confidence, this workshop is for you. Bring your sob stories (how you’ve written your novel into a dead end, how you can’t stay focused, how you’ve missed your deadline, how you feel too intimidated to send out your manuscript), and we’ll find solutions.
1 Class | 1.5 hours | litpark.com
$50
Jump Start Your Memoir
December 5 & 12, 2020
4:00pm—6:00pm EST
To be a human is to have a story, and this two-day workshop is designed to take the mystery out of memoir writing and get writers started on their own. Memoir at its essence is a design/build project: it takes the stuff of one’s personal life as the bricks and mortar used to build a story arc. Through a series of prompts, discussion of excerpts from various recently-published memoirs, and exercises in mapping a story arc, we’ll get to designing the blueprint for your own memoir. Students need not have a memoir-in-progress to enroll, but they should expect to leave with one by the workshop’s conclusion.
2 Classes | jeannemcculloch.com
$100
Rendering the Ordinary Extraordinary
January 16, 23 & 30, 2021
1:00pm—4:00pm EST
Great poems often render what is considered ordinary extraordinary. Neruda wrote an ode to his socks; in Whitman’s Song of Myself a child asks: “What is the grass? Fetching it to me with full hands,/How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is more/than he.” In discussing student work, we address our vision of the everyday world and the images that inhabit our poems. How do we learn to elaborate on the most ordinary of objects or situations? How do we recognize the extraordinary in what is commonplace? The Mexican poet Octavio Paz has said: The purpose of poetry is to restore to mankind the possibility to wonder.
3 Class Course
$160
The Short Poem
February 13, 20 & March 13, 2021
1:00pm—4:00pm EST
Charles Simic has said: “The religion of the short poem in every age and in every literature has a single commandment: Less is always more. The short poem rejects preamble and summary. It is about all and everything, the metaphysics of a few words surrounded by much silence.” In this workshop we will read short poems and learn to write them. We will consider, apart from its length, the characteristics of the short poem. What is left unsaid, what is included and why? How does silence help make every word tell?
3 Class Course
$160
Creating Characters Inside & Out
November 14
1:00pm—5:00pm EST
How do you create a memorable character? In this class, we’ll read some short stories, examining ways authors develop their characters, both through their interior worlds and their exterior selves. I’ll send you pdfs of the stories before the class. During class, we’ll do writing exercises in which we explore characters, bringing them to life with different craft strategies.
$100
First Person in Stories
September 26, 2020
1:00pm—3:00pm EST
In this class, students will read examples of first person point of view, through stories by James Joyce, Jamaica Kincaid and Miranda July. Then students will practice different first person point of view through in-class exercises, which they may share with the class if they want.
$50
Strategies for Story Beginnings
October 10, 2020
1:00pm—5:00pm EST
What is the most effective way to start a short story? In this one-time class, we’ll look at pdfs of classic stories and analyze different ways writers bring a reader into a text. We’ll then practice these techniques in class. Students will receive pdfs of stories before the class starts.
$100
Sensory Detail Craft Workshop
October 25, 2020
1:00pm—3:00pm EST
In this class, students will read a story by John Cheever (sent to them before the class), looking at ways he uses sensory detail. Then students will practice using sensory detail through in-class exercises, which they may share with the class if they want. Registration for this workshop closed on October 23, 2020.
$50
Flash Fiction
October 24, 2020
1:00pm—4:00pm EST
Read, write, and share flash fiction. This workshop covers the various types of flash fiction and includes a lot of prompts. This is a great beginner workshop because flash fiction is fast and short. There is no delayed gratification, just lots of creativity and inspiration.
$75
Starting your Novel
Wednesdays, October 7—28, 2020
1:00pm—3:00pm EST
Designed for beginning writers who want to write a novel but haven’t been able to take the plunge. Covers research, organization, outlining, figuring out your themes, finding your voice, writing scenes. Includes exercises to walk you through all those aspects of the process, and writing prompts to help explore material.
$160
Improv for Writers
Tuesdays, Oct 13—Nov 24, 2020
7:00pm—9:00pm EST
Want to tickle your creativity, expand your story-telling prowess, find a new creative community….or just play? Then this class is for you! Wherever you are in your writing and whatever you may know about improv—is the perfect place to start. You’ll deepen your sense of narrative, organization and character—and banish writer’s block— by playing classic improv games specifically adapted for writers and Zoom.