This 4-month generative fiction class will focus on writing new material for those working toward a novel, stories, or other fiction.

The class starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

I like to approach generating material by quieting inner critics and putting aside inhibiting self-doubt. To do this, we will incorporate practices like (1) writing by hand, typing while covering our screens, and more, (2) coming up with detailed, personalized, adjustable writing schedules, (3) maintaining sustained accountability systems, and (4) learning how to establish the routines and writing rhythms that work best for each participant. Since hope is a verb and a practice, I believe in acting as if: writing as if you already have full faith in your work, as if your novel or stories already feel completely alive to you. This faith, I have found, can make itself true. Desire begets ability; obsession breeds talent.

We’ll explore assignments accordingly. For instance, you'll practice paying attention to the world through your characters' senses (such as by going on a long walk and taking notes on what you see, then going on that same walk and noticing what one of your characters sees), with the idea that what you notice is also who you are. We will generate entirely new work as well as revisions of your writing.

I believe that our characters are at least as complicated, multilayered, and astonishing as we are, and that one of the great lessons of fiction—as is one of the great lessons of love—is that other people, very much including our fictional creations, are as alive as we are to ourselves. One of the tasks of writing fiction, and one of its profound joys, is learning how to bring these complexities, layers, and surprises to life.

Through the close reading of others' published work as well as your own, you’ll work toward becoming the best possible reader of your writing. Over the course of the semester, you will deeply practice becoming as alert as possible to what particularly excites you about reading, and therefore what especially excites, moves, and pulls you along in your own writing. We’ll explore different paths toward understanding what we most feel called to write.

At the start of the class, we’ll talk about what you hope to take away from this course, whether you’re working on a book, stories, or something else entirely. We will make plans together that best suit your hopes, and over the course of four months we’ll continue checking in to see how your work is going and what about your plan could want changing. By the end of this class, you’ll have practiced many methods and varieties of generating fiction, and you’ll carry these practices forward into the rest of your writing life.

For those who want it, we’ll talk about some of the more outward-facing parts of making a life in writing, including publication, agents, editors, and more.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a critique-based workshop, there’s more about the fall term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month generative nonfiction class will focus on writing new material for those working toward a memoir, essay collection, or other nonfiction.

The class starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

I like to approach generating nonfiction by writing in layers of memory, of truth, and fact. The rigors of nonfiction are tied to working with evidentiary materials, yet within communities that have faced erasure or the pressures of colonization other versions of truth remain. Rather than responding to the pressure of seeking one truth, we will construct nonfiction that acknowledges a variegated strata of truth and the murk and inexact quality of memory. In this course, we will construct drafts that work toward the personal essay, memoir, and the reported piece, by building in layers. We will write the personal in layers of emotion—angry versions versus compassionate versions—write the self and characters along similar lines, and investigate versions of truth by asking how different people in the story might tell of what happened. In this way, we will reach for unexpected lenses and come as close to the truth as we can, and then after the writing is done, we will decide on a place of truth-telling that best serves the story.

Pages generated in this class will remain private to you (though there will be regular share-outs during class). so that you can best write without inhibition.

At the start of the semester, we will create individual plans—word count, page count, or notebook page count—and create goals that we will then be accountable to the group to. We will also look at a general shape of the project you are undertaking. What is the general shape of the memoir that you want to draft? What are its major themes and minor ones? What essays or subject matter are you plunging into, and what might be the scenes/stories populating that work?

I will also give assignments that involve fact-gathering—and these fact-gathering assignments will range from using traditional methods (such as the interview and the counter-interview) and nontraditional methods (such as seeking the truth in unexpected places, and using divining tools).

For this semester, we will write the story as deep and close to the emotion as possible, keeping in mind all the questions of truth in nonfiction, and the malleability of memory and fact. We will also discuss being a secretary to the work, laying plans toward publication, and the more strategic parts of getting your work out there—including seeking agents and awards and fellowships—for all who seek that information.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a critique-based workshop, there’s more about the fall term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month generative poetry class will focus on writing new material for those working toward a poetry collection, a lyric/experimental film, or a poetic one person show. 

The class starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

I like to approach generating poetry by considering what the well each one of us holds is: what is our unique bundle, life path, emotional truth– what are the things only we can say? In crafting writing, I find that I hold dear many spiritual teachings from Sufism, the idea that our path to the divine is made possible by being honest to our true voice, by stripping away the layers that we put around ourselves that distance us from our heart’s knowing. My belief is, so often we need to know what we want to write and how to do it– so often, we need to get out of our own way in order to do that. This class will focus on both craft and technicality of writing, while also honoring the spirit and the mystic—the parts of creation that lay beyond the realms of understanding. Through this class we will dive into ideas of lyric memory and lyric truth—knowing that we live in a world where there are many seemingly competing truths, how do we get clear in our own knowing and our own telling of our lives, of our people, of the world around us? In this class, participants will be encouraged to find their current pulse point: what sparks their aliveness in this moment? What is keeping them up at night with wonder? What is moving them to the page? From there, we’ll be examining poetry, lyrical films, and poetic performances to help inspire us to generate new material, to push us forward from a craft perspective while also honoring the emotional pull of the piece. 

In our class, we will have the opportunity to share the work that we are writing to practice vulnerability, and to create a writing community that includes feedback and care. 

We’ll start the semester with our intentions, creating individual plans per student—are you working towards a manuscript, are you wanting to start writing again without a project in mind, how many poems per week are you trying to write? Midway through the class we’ll assess again—what themes do you notice are coming up in your work? What is the well within you? What surprises you? What do you notice about the project that you’ve embarked on? At the end, we’ll do a final assessment of the project and work that has been generated over the course of the class. 

Through our class, we’ll examine poetry across multiple forms and styles—you’ll be pushed to write lyric, narrative, experimental, and form-expanding pieces. 

We also will discuss the industry of publication, what it means to be a working writer, and pathways that are both traditional and non-traditional in a career as a poet. 

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a critique-based workshop, there’s more about the fall term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month generative screenwriting class will focus on writing new material for those working toward a TV show, web series, adaptation, short film, or feature script. This class is open to both narrative and documentary filmmakers. 

The class starts on February 4, 2026, Wednesday, and will meet every other week until May 27, 2026, Wednesday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Have you been yearning for a place to write your own screenplay, to dive into TV and film? Drawing on experience in both Hollywood and Indie filmmaking, this class will approach screenwriting through analyzing structure, dialogue, and image in filmmaking. We will look at the unique form of screenwriting, and how we can draw on other genres to influence our unique filmmaking voice, as well as what it means to adapt existing literary IP (both our own and others). We will examine poetic filmmaking, looking critically at the ways that lyric is used to enhance film, as well as looking at more commercial approaches to storytelling. We will examine the difference between structures of TV vs. feature writing, as well as short films and web series. We will also look at documentary films and hybrid films, considering the ethics of what happens when we merge out of the fictional space. This class will be generative—if you have been sitting on an idea for a film, web series, short film, or TV show and need structure and discipline to anchor you, this class is perfect for you. We will be discussing the business of filmmaking, what it means to break into the film industry, and also be able to share the work that we are generating in class with each other in workshop settings. 

We’ll start the semester with our intentions, creating individual plans per student—what project are you working on, what are the filmmakers who map your artistic lineage, what is your natural writing process? Midway through the class we’ll assess again—what themes do you notice are coming up in your work? What is the well within you? What surprises you? What do you notice about the project that you’ve embarked on? At the end, we’ll do a final assessment of the project and work that has been generated over the course of the class. 

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a critique-based workshop, there’s more about the fall term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

In addition to the spring 4-month generative fiction class, this includes the fall 4-month fiction workshop, during which we’ll focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The spring semester starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026 from Thursday 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET. The fall semester starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

If you sign up for the full year of classes by January 31, 2026, an automatic 10% discount is applied.

Please note: if you’re interested in the full year, wonderful! The fall semester, which includes the workshop portion of the class, is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the full year, please send a 10- to 20-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

You can read testimonials from previous students here.

In addition to the spring 4-month generative nonfiction class, this includes the fall 4-month nonfiction workshop, during which we’ll focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The spring semester starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET. The fall semester starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2027 from Thursday 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

If you sign up for the full year of classes by January 31, 2026, an automatic 10% discount is applied.

Please note: if you’re interested in the full year, wonderful! The fall semester, which includes the workshop portion of the class, is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the full year, please send a 10- to 20-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

You can read testimonials from previous students here.

In addition to the spring 4-month generative poetry class, this includes the fall 4-month poetry workshop, during which we’ll focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The spring semester starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET. The fall semester starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

If you sign up for the full year of classes by January 31, 2026, an automatic 10% discount is applied.

Please note: if you’re interested in the full year, wonderful! The fall semester, which includes the workshop portion of the class, is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the full year, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

You can read testimonials from previous students here.

In addition to the spring 4-month generative screenwriting class, this includes the fall 4-month screenwriting workshop, during which we’ll focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The spring semester starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026 from Thursday 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET. The fall semester starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

If you sign up for the full year of classes by January 31, 2026, an automatic 10% discount is applied.

Please note: if you’re interested in the full year, wonderful! The fall semester, which includes the workshop portion of the class, is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the full year, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

You can read testimonials from previous students here.

This 4-month fiction workshop will focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The class starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Please note: this class is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the fall term, please send a 10- to 20-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

In the fall workshop, we will spend much of our time in the careful analysis and discussion of participants’ works-in-progress. We will approach workshop with a spirit of inquiry and curiosity, moving toward meeting a story or excerpt on its own terms. There are no absolutes in writing fiction; I believe this so strongly that even such a declaration is suspect, as it’s also an absolute. A central priority with each workshop will be making sure you walk away feeling excited to revise, intrigued by the potential to deepen and explore.

Which shouldn’t, in the slightest, prevent the possibility of rigor and play, and of joy. I heartily believe that we can learn as much, if not more, from one another’s workshops as we do from our own, from the practice of reading closely and deeply. You’ll receive extensive margin notes on your manuscripts from other participants, as well as from me.

We’ll discuss a wide range of revision practices and possibilities, along with what to do after you believe you’re done. Toward the start of the class, we’ll talk about writing schedules and routines, accountability systems, and possible ways to set up sustained writing habits. For those who want it, we’ll also discuss working toward publication, as well as other outward-facing aspects of a life in writing.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a generative class, there’s more about the spring term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month nonfiction workshop will focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The class starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Please note: This class is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the fall term, please send a 10- to 20-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

In workshop, our primary focus will be the careful analysis and discussion of participants’ works-in-progress. To supplement our understanding of craft, throughout the semester, we will survey different elements of story in nonfiction. We will look at the intersection of audience and power, story tension, and learn to edit for elements that are working on a micro-scale (in a line, a paragraph, a page, or a chapter) and on a macro-scale (how they are accumulating and weaving a prolonged narrative). We will look at building meaning through metaphor, scene, and adjacent narratives we can bring into the text.

Critique sessions are author-vision led. Each author will submit along with their workshop an artist statement. As readers of their work, we will practice de-centering ourselves and centering the author—this means thinking beyond our reactions and individual taste. We will study and analyze the style, imagery, and pattern of each nonfiction piece, as well as the engineering of its sequence, plot, and story elements guiding ourselves from what the author wishes for the work and what the work itself seems to want to be in order to give the best feedback possible.

We will also discuss being a secretary to the work, laying plans toward publication, and the more strategic parts of getting your work out there—including seeking agents and awards and fellowships. 

Workshop is a special place, one where we can come together as artists and share a practice of meaning-making. 

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a generative class, there’s more about the spring term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month poetry workshop will focus on a particular poetry project and manuscript that you are working on, to push it to a poetry draft that you feel good about. This is similar to a thesis-level class at a MFA workshop. 

The class starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Please note: This class is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the fall term, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

In the fall workshop, we will focus on a careful analysis and discussion of manuscripts that each participant is working on. We will get to know each other’s projects, each other’s goals, and dive deep in each manuscript to really bring out the unique voice and truths that each project holds. We also will be reading and looking at poetry books, films and solo-shows in the world, in order to help us expand and examine ideas of craft, structure, form, and play. Using both participants' manuscripts and existing work in the world, this class will push each participant towards getting closer to their unique voices, developing a manuscript that each participant can be proud of, pushing it to the next step. 

Our feedback sessions will be focused on discussing the truth that we see in the manuscript, the voice that’s coming through in the manuscript, and the idea of what this manuscript is specifically offering that is unique. From there, our feedback will be based on how to get this manuscript closer to the vision of itself that it is articulating and centering the writer—moving beyond ideas of what one ‘should’ do, or our reactions or individual taste. I view workshop and feedback as a sacred container, a gift we bring to each other by engaging thoroughly in each other's work, and that will be upheld throughout the semester. 

Throughout the class, we also will discuss the industry of publication, what it means to be a working writer, and pathways that are both traditional and non-traditional in a career as a poet.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a generative class, there’s more about the spring term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

This 4-month screenwriting workshop will focus on a particular film project that you are working on (TV show, feature film, web series, adaptation, short film, or documentary), to push it to a solid draft that you feel good about. This is similar to a thesis-level class at a MFA workshop. 

The class starts on August 6, 2026, Wednesday, and will meet every other week until December 16, 2026, Wednesday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Please note: this class is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the fall term, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing your project and what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

In the fall workshop, we will focus on a careful analysis and discussion of screenplays that each participant is working on. We will get to know each other’s projects, each other’s goals, and dive deep in each project to really bring out the unique voice and truths that each project holds. We also will be reading and looking at films that exist in the world, in order to help us expand and examine ideas of craft, structure, form, and play. Using both participants' screenplays and existing work in the world, this class will push each participant towards getting closer to their unique voices, developing a filmmaking project that each participant can be proud of, pushing it to the next step. 

Our feedback sessions will be focused on discussing the truth that we see in the project, the voice that’s coming through in the script, and the idea of what this script is specifically offering that is unique. We will do table reads of parts of the script, to help benefit the writer by hearing the dialogue out loud. From there, our feedback will be based on how to get this script closer to the vision of itself that it is articulating and centering the writer—moving beyond ideas of what one “should” do, or our reactions or individual taste. I view workshop and feedback as a sacred container, a gift we bring each other by engaging thoroughly in each others’ work. And that will be upheld throughout the semester. 

Throughout the class, we also will discuss the industry of filmmaking, what it means to be a working writer, and pathways that are both traditional and non-traditional in a career as a filmmaker.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a generative class, there’s more about the spring term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.