Working from frameworks I’ve developed and refined over twenty-five years of teaching in creative writing in MFA and PhD programs, we will approach the essay as a site of inquiry and encounter—an experience shaped through attention, relation, and the uncanny charge of language itself. We will interrupt habit, open new lines of thinking, and produce writing that is both rigorous and surprising.

Throughout our time together, you will receive four audio talks—brief, concentrated lectures on writing through the lens of tarot, approaching the mystery of language through oracular considerations.

Near the end of the intensive, you will also receive a one-hour one-on-one Zoom session with me. In this session, we will attend closely to your writing—clarifying intention, sharpening craft, and working through questions as we articulate your next steps. If desired, I will also offer detailed developmental and line-level edits on up to ten pages of one essay. A recording of your session will be provided.

This is a space for writers who want to produce new work while deepening their attention to how thinking unfolds on the page. You will leave with three substantial drafts, a plan for their future trajectory, and a more precise understanding of the questions and structures that will carry the work forward.

Please note, this class is offered multiple times a year, each with new strategies and approaches. If you’ve taken it before, you will encounter entirely new material each time.