Custom Writing Workshops

 

Find your voice as a writer with real-time feedback from peers & professional authors. We design writing classes & writers’ workshops for small groups of co-workers, students, creatives & more.

 

creative writing workshops - poetry workshops - fiction workshops - novel writing workshops - business writing workshops - professional writing workshops - memoir workshops - creative nonfiction workshops - comedy writing classes - creative writing summer courses - more

Browse Past Workshops

Curious about our custom writing courses & events? The portfolio below features 16 of the many writers’ workshops we have offered in the past. Feel free to reference these examples in your consultation call!

Finding Recklessness in Form, w/ Julian Delacruz

This poetry writing workshop privileges evolution in writing style rather than perfection, learning to be unapologetically yourself, and leaning into your own necessary subjects with depth and ease.

You Know What’s Funny? A Humor Writing Workshop! w/ Mariana Roa Oliva

Sketch comedy, short stories, opinion pieces, tweets… What makes funny things funny? In this online comedy writing workshop, we will get serious about humor, thinking deeply about how and why a piece of writing can make us laugh, and getting plenty of practice at writing our own.

Tending & Untaming, w/ Caroline Harper New

In this online poetry workshop, we will tend rather than tame our poems. This is a space for imaginative risk-taking, in which we explore how language can unlock a greater understanding of the self. Sign up for this writing course online today!

Beyond Narcissism: Poetry as an Act of Care, w/ Mace Dent Johnson

Join us for a poetry workshop exploring the relationship between self-care, social justice, and creative writing.

Summoning the Muse: Creating a Writing Practice that Works, w/ Matt del Busto

Why is it so easy to think about writing but so hard to actually do it? In this all-genre workshop, we’ll learn how writing routines and daily rituals can help us create inspiration from our everyday lives rather than waiting for it to strike.

Novel Jumpstart Course, w/ Josh Boardman

Turn the germ of an idea into a full-fledged novel! Get to know your main characters and participate in a workshop in which the group reads and discusses the completed outline of your book. This generative writers’ workshop will jumpstart your novel writing process, no matter your level of experience.

Sustaining Tension in Fiction, with K. Ho

What makes a story taut? How do we manipulate the elements of our stories to raise the stakes and increase dramatic tension? In this all-levels 6-week writers' workshop, we will explore tools to enhance and animate our fiction.

In My Own Flames: Life Writing for Fire Signs, w/ Darina Sikmashvili

This zodiac-inspired creative nonfiction workshop will unite writers whose sun signs are associated with the element of fire: Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius. With guidance from the workshop instructor and a guest astrologer, participants will explore the astrological worldview as a “biographical lens,” kindling new insights in life experiences that seem to have gone cold.

Restriction and Release: Experimenting with Traditional Poetic Forms, w/ Mace Dent Johnson

In this online poetry writing workshop, students will learn a variety of traditional forms dating as far back as the 7th century and originating in writing traditions across the globe. By learning the rules of the Ghazal, Haibun, Sonnet, and Ballad, students will learn the generative and experimental potential of formal restriction and release.

Queer Taboo, w/ Julian Delacruz

In this queer-facing virtual poetry workshop, we will read queer and radical poets from the margins who revel in excess and in the joys and perils of their “forbidden” sexualities. Together, we’ll write toward our secret selves in the hope that we can dispel the myths and dreads surrounding queerness through poetry that is frank and open.

Teens Writing Teens: Coming-of-Age Fiction for High Schoolers, w/ Veronica Ciastko

Coming-of-age fiction documents all the complexities of growing up, and who better to write it than the very people who are currently coming of age — teens! Students in this high school writing workshop will mine their own lives for detail and narrative, and will walk away from this workshop with a highly polished piece of writing under their belt.

Resistance Is Futile: Speculative Fiction as a Mirror for our Moment, w/ Damian Johansson

Do you have a penchant for writing weird, speculative stories about the future, the past, the spaces between worlds, worlds that never were, and worlds that exist only in your imagination? Do you want to write socially aware speculative fiction that engages with real-world history and politics? Join our inaugural fantasy, science fiction, and horror writing workshop today!

Against Confession, w/ Jack Davis

This craft and a generative workshop explores confessionalism -- the premiere poetic movement born out of the 20th and 21st century (Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell) We will discuss its limits, politics, and the ways poetry has evolved since this movement took flight.

Prayer Poems: Writing Toward the Absent Divine, w/ K. Henderson

Seeking insight into the boundless relationships between divinity, creativity, and language, this online writing workshop will teach you to write poetry that grounds you in openness to experience, in affirmation of what is. Open to people of all faiths, as well those without a faith tradition.

Deep Revision, w/ Julian Delacruz

In this one-night workshop, students will expand their range of options for revision, generate fresh writing for old poems, and prove that writer’s block just doesn’t exist. Deep Revision will be devoted to getting messy and molding something previously unseen from your work.

Hot & Conscious: Exploring Eros in Fiction, w/ Ally Sass

Most sex scenes are unsuccessful because they only concentrate on the sex. This online sex writing workshop will explore the questions that arise when authors treat eros more generally, approaching the potentially narrow realm of “sex writing” from dynamic and unexpected angles.

 

Write better, together.

 

 Our online writing workshops challenge groups of all levels and backgrounds — professionals, students, hobbyists, and more — to hone their craft together, trusting in and beyond the guidance of their instructors.

Each Gilliam Writers Group workshop is facilitated by an accomplished author who loves to teach. We can also design creative or professional writing courses that incorporate special guests with expertise in relevant fields.

All workshop instructors partner with our firm’s leading administrators throughout the curriculum design process, ensuring that every aspect of your group’s learning experience has been vetted by multiple parties.

Contact us today about designing a virtual writing course with the Gilliam Writers Group: fill out the form below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation call.

(In-person writing classes available in select locations.)

 

Interested in online writers’ workshops or custom events?

Tell us about your project, background, or goals, and a representative from our leadership team will give you a call to discuss. Let’s find the perfect writing coach to design & facilitate your private workshop or event.

If you’d rather skip the line, you can also book directly here:

Brady Gilliam, Founder

Becca Canny, Principal
 

*If you are seeking employment with the Gilliam Writers Group, do not use this form — it’s for prospective clients. Instead, feel free to send an introduction and resume to brady@gilliamwritersgroup.com.

 
 
 

A Word on Our Poetry Workshops

Though we offer workshops in all genres, the Gilliam Writers Group specializes in online poetry writing courses. We may be a little biased, but we believe our online poetry classes are the best on the internet.

The fact that many of our writing coaches trained primarily as poets, earning degrees from the country’s top MFA and PhD programs, positions the Gilliam Writers Group to offer unique learning opportunities in this under-appreciated literary form.

We design poetry courses we wish we’d taken ourselves — wildly creative, yet carefully structured and academically rigorous. It isn’t a stretch to say that poetry writing classes like ours have not, until now, been available online.

We hope you enjoy participating in them as much as we enjoy creating them!

 
 
 

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