Our unity is our strength : Wise Words for Writers + Advanced Prose starting up again in person
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Dear Writers, If you're finding it harder to find words to describe the world around you these days, you are not alone. The world is changing at a rapid clip. It makes it hard for storytellers, poets and everyone else. However, when we come together, we validate each other's experience and make sense of the narrative. We encourage each other to find a narrative thread. Today was multicultural day at my daughter's pre-school and everyone shared a piece of their culture. The Principal is from Nigeria. She welcomed us with sayings as if speaking from the public square of her village inviting people in. Some of the sayings I remember were: "At night I can see the moon alone in my house. But with you, we can sit under the stars. Alone in my house I can smile, but together we can laugh." And then, she said, "Our unity is our strength." You can apply this to writing. Sometimes in all the chaos, language erodes. People are passive. Fewer words, and more distractions = fewer thoughts. At the end of the day, I've learned that just being in community with other writers whose work I admire is powerful. And it gives me permission to write when I feel like the words are being snatched from me. Sharing work with other writers makes me feel alive and gives me the courage to keep going. Please, writers. Keep going. Get a journal and record your thoughts during these ever shifting times. Some day you will look back on it and be glad that you did. Thank you for being part of SF Creative Writing Institute Community. This week we brought back Tongo Eisen-Martin to teach his Revolutionary Poetry Workshop after a five-year hiatus. Tomorrow I begin teaching my Advanced Prose workshop at SF Creative Writing Institute in person at Harvey Milk Center in San Francisco. If you have a novel or memoir languishing in a drawer somewhere, bring it and lets get it going again. Next week, Kim McMillon's Poetry of Healing begins online. If you want to write a love poem to your body, and meditate on the art of healing with a scholar, poet and playwright, it's a great one to join. And two weeks after that, we'll be starting Art of the Chapbook with Paul Corman Roberts, a great workshop for people who want to publish a short collection of poems or flash fiction. We'll be launching a new reading project soon. But for now, keep on writing. Write for 20 minutes. Write for an hour. Just write. Warmly, Alexandra Kostoulas, Founder & Executive Director, SF Creative Writing Institute Advanced Prose Workshop: The Art and Craft of Storytelling April 26 -May 31| 10:30am- 1:30pmIn Person in San Francisco Instructor: Alexandra Kostoulas Are you mid-way through working on a longer piece of prose whether nonfiction or fiction? Then, this is the class for you! Our signature creative writing workshop will focus on editing and revising your in-progress work and offer exercises to keep you in flow. We'll gather in person at the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts in San Francisco to talk about narrative concepts, examine each other's work, share ideas and edits, challenge each other, and cheer each other on. Join us and you'll be rolling up your sleeves and getting to work from the first class, revising pieces you have already started to write as well as writing new scenes, bringing your narrative to life. This workshop can be taken once or multiple times depending on the length and time it takes to finish your project. Alumni are always welcome back. We will open an online version of this class, if there is interest, soon. About the Instructor: Alexandra Kostoulas founded the SF Creative Writing Institute in 2015. She teaches people to find their voice and unblock themselves creatively every day. She has worked with thousands of students from all walks of life in her career as an educator and has coached many aspiring writers to publication and performance of their work. Her students have gone on to run literary organizations, become professors at prestigious universities, publish their work in peer-reviewed journals, land book deals and break barriers in their writing and lives. She writes poetry, nonfiction and fiction. April 26-May 31, 2025 Saturdays 10:30-1:30pm Pacific Time Tuition: $450 *This class will skip May 24.
In this 4-week workshop, Poetry of Healing: The Body, we stand as flowers watered by healing words. Our bodies are a memoir to ourselves. We will write poems to our hearts, minds, bodies, and emotions. The most important person in this course is you. You will use words to create poetry that celebrates you. About the Instructor: Dr. Kim McMillon is a producer, playwright, and contributor to the anthology Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka (Ohio University Press, 2021). She is also the editor of Black Fire—This Time, an anthology published by Willow Books on March 15, 2022. McMillon produced, wrote, and starred in her one-woman show,Confessions of a Thespian: When Spirit & Theatre Collide, which was directed by Margo Hall and staged at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley, CA, in March 2000. She also produced, wrote, and directed Voyages, which premiered at the Nova Theatre in San Francisco in March 1986 and was later produced at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Playhouse in August 1987. A musical excerpt from Voyages was staged at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center in February 2023 as part of their Black History Month programming. McMillon’s children’s book, The Healing Book of Me, is set to be published in late September 2025. Additionally, her essay titled "Ancestor as Refugee" will be published in the SAGE Encyclopedia of Refugee Studies in September 2025. The Poetry Of Healing: The Body Dr. Kim McMillon Saturdays 10:30-12:30pm Pacific Time Tuition: $395
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