** postponed to Spring '26 ** dates coming soon **

** postponed to Spring '26 ** dates coming soon **

SPRING Workshop

21st century short form

starting in March 2026

weekly on Zoom

Sundays // time TBD

This year’s Fall 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 for three hours and runs for ten weeks. In the first hour of each class, we will discuss a story or essay published after the year 2000, with an eye to what we can learn or borrow from that author. The next two hours will be spent workshopping student pieces.

We will have two guest teachers in this session: m.s. RedCherries and Benjamin Schaefer. The current reading list, subject to revision, includes work by Anthony Veasna So, Hanif Abdurraqib, Ling Ma, Deborah Eisenberg, Octavia Butler, Alexander Chee, Melissa Faliveno, and Tony Tulathumitte.

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. Testimonials and guest teacher bios below.

Request info

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...