[ all genres ]

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

  • 4 weeks long = $320 total / person

  • meets wednesdays from 7-9pm eastern time

  • virtual (Zoom + Google Docs)

What makes funny things funny? In this 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.

Humor plays a really important role in how we bond with our fellow humans, how we make sense of the world around us, and how we cope when this world just doesn’t seem to make sense. In this workshop we will explore how writers use humor to tap into difficult or strange aspects of the human experience, and develop tools for writing pieces that engage readers through humor.

Whether you are looking to explore the world of comedy writing or to infuse new life into your prose, you will come out with a sharpened eye for the humorous potential at the core of—almost—any situation, as well as a richer understanding of the ethics of humor writing. With the goal of helping you get better acquainted with your own sense of humor, you will be assigned to read and write short works in a variety of genres. Be ready to turn mundane occurrences into an epic space opera novel! Or at least into a short essay, a comedy sketch, and many, many pieces of flash fictions.

This workshop will welcome stand-up comedian, Richard Raya Santos, as guest facilitator for at least one session. Read more about Richard below!

  • Mariana is a fiction and performance writer from Mexico City. They graduated from Brown’s Literary Arts MFA, where their work received awards including the Feldman Prize and the Frances Mason Harris Prize. Mariana has collaborated with other artists and creators in projects including installations, plays, a video game, and a TV show, and their writing has been published in several anthologies in Mexico and the US. They have over ten years of experience teaching and tutoring in both English and Spanish at a variety of levels.

  • Richard Santos Raya (he/him) is a writer, educator, martial artist and game designer from Berkeley and Oakland, CA. A stand-up comedian and storyteller with a Bachelor's in American Studies from Macalester and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, Richard combines creativity and critical thinking with a strong grounding in historical and political contexts. He geeks out on storytelling, myth, and games of all kinds, holding a deep belief in their power and potential as educational and liberatory tools. Most recently, Richard has used his skills to teach law to teenagers at Centro Legal de la Raza's Youth Law Academy and run a campaign for Oakland City Council in District 5 as a part of the larger defund-the-police movement in 2020. He will begin studies in NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Game Design MFA program this fall.