** March 22nd to May 17th ** 2026 **
** March 22nd to May 17th ** 2026 **
SPRING Workshop
21st century short form
March 22nd to May 17th 2026
weekly on Zoom
Sundays // 1-4pm ET
This year’s Spring Workshop is designed for those with an interest in publishing their work; who are pursuing a creative profession; and/or who are interested in deepening their commitment to their writing practice.
The workshop meets once a week on Sundays and runs for eight weeks, March 22nd to May 17th, skipping April 5th. We will have a brief pre-class orientation meeting on March 15th.
Each week, we will read and discuss two pieces of different genres (short story, essay, journalism, memoir), considering each on their own terms and in relation to one another. All of the reading selections (below) were published after the year 2000, and my hope is that, as a collection, these writings will offer us useful and challenging insights into the strangeness of our current moment.
As a workshop teacher, I believe that before you can critique something, you must first be able to accurately and thoroughly describe it. My hope is that, by first describing what appears on the page and what we believe the author’s project to be, and then articulating our response to it, we can serve as useful and encouraging mirrors, helping each writer to move toward a clearer understanding of what they are attempting to do and how they may do that more emphatically, more clearly, with greater vehemence or grace or style—whatever their goal may be.
Classes are three hours long, with the first hour devoted to a discussion of our readings for the week, and the second two set aside for two student pieces. Each participant should expect to be workshopped at least twice.
While the class is geared towards short forms, I can accommodate book-length projects with advance notice. If you would like to workshop a book-length manuscript, alert me when you enroll, and we will plan accordingly.
We will have two guest teachers in this session: m.s. RedCherries and Benjamin Schaefer.
The class fee is $650, with a sliding scale rate of $325. Scholarship spots and trades in kind are also available. If you really want to take the class, I don’t want money to be an obstacle.
Max 8 participants. Reading list, testimonials and guest teacher bios below.
Reading List
Youbin Kang, “The Sting of Comrade Hornets,” from Lux, Fall 2025 issue // Youngmi Mayer, Prologue and Chapters 1 and 2, from I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying
Octavia Butler, “The Book of Martha,” from Bloodchild // Tsitsi Dangarembga, essay TBD, from Black and Female
Melissa Faliveno, “Tomboy,” from Tomboyland; Deborah Eisenberg, “Cross Off and Move On,” from Your Duck is My Duck
Alexander Chee, “Mr. and Mrs. B,” from How to Write an Autobiographical Novel // Tony Tulathimutte, “The Feminist,” from Rejection
Mark Greif, “Against Exercise,” from Against Everything // George Saunders, “Ghoul,” from Liberation Day
Torrey Peters, “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones,” from Stag Dance // Paul B. Preciado, “Dysphoria Mon Amour,” from Dysphoria Mundi
With additional pieces as assigned by our guest teachers.
m.s. RedCherries received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a JD from Arizona State University College of Law. She is a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and lives in New York City. Her debut, mother (Penguin Books) was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Benjamin Schaefer is a writer and editor from upstate New York. He studied literature and creative writing at Bard College and at the MFA program at the University of Arizona. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Electric Literature, Guernica, Literary Hub, Poets & Writers Magazine, and The Southern Review. He is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Millay Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He edited The Rainbow Issue of Fairy Tale Review, which was a finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Outstanding LGBTQ+ Anthology.
TESTIMONIALS
Victoria, Spring 2024 & Fall 2024
“Cat’s class offers the perfect balance of instruction, practice, specific feedback, and good vibes. I always felt both challenged and supported by her expectations and the exercises she gave us. In particular, Cat's focus on process helped me to build new habits that I'm incredibly grateful for. There is no magical thinking here -- Cat acknowledges how hard it is to write every day, and reminds us with humor and warmth that the path forward is to do it anyway.
Matt, Fall 2022 and Spring 2023
“Cat’s classes helped me achieve my two most important goals as a writer: to write more and to write better! Cat’s unique teaching style, the assignments, the readings, and the support of a cohort make the classes fun, provoking, and impactful. Great for hobbyists and professionals alike!”
Dmitry, Fall 2023
“I just finished one of Cat's workshops and it was quite lovely. She's really made for this kind of work! She knows how to support and include writers of every variety, and she is connected to so many strands of literature that she can make recommendations and connections pertaining to whatever trip it is you're on, even if (let's just say hypothetically), you are trying to write a piece that wrings practical advice out of visualizations of 4D spacetime . . .
Anyway, 100% recommend if you're looking for some encouragement to get more writing done. I was a writing major, so I know that any writing course comes with a captive audience and the pressure of deadlines, but they don't all come with Cat's insight, compassion, and calming presence.”
George, Spring 2024
“I am an elderly physician, interested in literature for many years. Now that I have stopped practicing I spend a major portion of my time writing. I heard about the Workshop given by Catherine Powell and signed up. Ms. Powell was consistently encouraging, highly organized, clearly knowledgeable about the process of writing, and followed a format that was not threatening, yet pointed out problems, and was helpful. The students in her workshop were diverse, and not experienced writers of fiction. Each provided a piece to discuss. Ms. Powell's analyses were perceptive, and her suggestions clear and helpful. She followed a largely Socratic method, reinforced by written summations. The revised works were read a later time and again discussed.
I observed several outcomes:
the revised pieces were, to me, greatly improved
the comments of the students regarding the submitted works became more substantive as the course progressed
the students bonded with each other so intensely that they traveled to get together with each other
my initial submission had an interesting format, but Ms. Powell's discussion led me to realize that the format was TOO unusual, and while perhaps a bit original, it did not work. I have now rewritten the piece many times, and It is improving, I believe. If it is good, which it may be, it is so because of Ms. Powell.
In summary: a solid course, well organized and run. A bargain...