Notice, Wonder, Arrange: Personal Essay, Feb 2024

$400.00
sold out

🕯️A six-week workshop exploring personal narratives, lyric essays, and alternative forms.

🕯️When: Thursday nights, Feb 1st - Mar 7th | 6 - 8 pm EST

or
Friday mornings, Feb 2nd - Mar 8th | 9 - 11 am EST

🕯️Where: Virtual, live on Zoom. You are encouraged to attend all sessions. If you miss one, it's ok! Classes are recorded and emailed.

🕯️ $400 new students | $350 returning students (code STILLWRITING)

🕯️Payment plans are available | Enrollment is limited, and registration closes when class fills.

Time:
Add To Cart
This is how the writing process begins: with charged moments in which we intuit deeper emotional and universal truths, even if we don’t understand these moments entirely.
— Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Have an uncomfortable mind; be strange. Be disturbed: by what is happening on the planet, and to it; by the cruelty and stupidity humanity is capable of; by the unbearable beauty of certain music, and the mysteries and failures of love, and the brief, confusing, exhilarating hour of your own life.
— Kim Addonizio
 

Notice, Wonder, Arrange is a creative writing workshop and a formula for discovery in personal narrative.

If you'd like to…

  • Generate pages of new writing

  • Read stunning essays, book excerpts, and author interviews that are relevant to your writing projects and goals

  • Discover, tune, and learn to trust your narrative voice

  • Connect with a community of writers

  • Receive individualized, helpful feedback on your writing

  • Learn and implement practical tools and techniques for revision

  • Get your creative process back on track

  • Write your first essay

  • Or maybe your hundredth

  • Find accountability, inspiration, and creative support

… Notice, Wonder, Arrange is for you.

 
Kate creates a safe, thoughtful, and structured (yet flexible) space in the zoom room. For those who have never taken a creative writing class before but are curious, this is for you. For those who are looking for a space to write into a story that is asking to come out, this is for you. I’m blown away that she has something authentic and specific to say after each person shares. Her classes are full of examples of amazing published lyrical essays and she has great prompts to get you into the writing mode. This class has helped me piece together stories that have sat on my memory archive shelf for years, allowing me to make sense of my own life journey. For that I am endlessly grateful.
— Jess C., Winter 2023, Catskill, NY
Taking Kate’s writing class was a profound gift to my writing life. It was a rare combination of practical, fun, and creatively invigorating. Kate’s curation of readings, prompts and writing assignments shook loose the rigid grip I had on my own creativity and helped me actually listen to my strange and winding writing process. Kate knows her shit and also makes you feel like an equal. She is a generous, sensitive, whip-smart teacher. I can’t wait to share space with Kate and her inspiring students again.
— Sophia S., Fall 2023, Sydney, Australia
Kate’s writing class lays the groundwork with carefully curated readings, prompts, and exercises that inspire enchantment and attunement with oneself and the world. Before taking Kate’s class I didn’t know how enriching and expanding the right community could be for my writing. It felt like a door getting unstuck. I have started to see the possibilities of what my writing could be. Kate is a most generous, compassionate, and intuitive teacher, getting to know her students individually to encourage and challenge each in the most supportive way. I learned so much about my style and what I bring to the page in a way that felt broadening.
— Michelinne O., Spring & Summer 2023, Ontario, Canada
I’ve always secretly wanted to write but felt terrified to put myself out there. Kate led our classes with grace and patience, striking a rare balance that ensures you feel taken seriously, but also very safe. Never judged. Kate brings honesty, wonderful insight, and a calm levity to all sessions. She also provides beautiful example texts to help inspire and guide. Kate’s class was the perfect place for me to get my feet wet in starting to share my writing. I will definitely carry everything I learned and thought about in her class with me.
— Emily M., Summer 2023, NYC
 

How we spend our time together will vary each week but will include…

  • Guided writing sessions using innovative prompts and exercises to shake loose new material

  • Conversations reflecting on our unique writing processes and writing lives

  • Reading, learning from, and discussing personal narratives in a variety of forms

  • Workshopping each other’s writing in an encouraging, welcoming, craft-centered format

What you’ll find here…

  • Six in-class writing assignments / six fresh starts / the seeds of new essays in various forms

  • Individualized feedback, workshop notes on one of your essays from Kate and the group

  • Weekly opportunities to share your works in progress with the group during informal “check-ins” at the start of class

  • A collection of lyrical essays, craft essays, podcasts, author interviews, and more resources to keep your writing mind engaged and inspired throughout these seven weeks and beyond

  • Accountability, community, new writing friends

Week by week…

Week 1: Personal Essay Basecamp. What is this? Why do this?

Week 2: Central Questions & Knots of Meaning

Week 3: Significant Sensory Details

Week 4: Tension & Stakes

Week 5: A Primer on Form

Week 6: Artistic Vision Statements

No experience is required, but what might be helpful is a few half-finished essays, a notebook of poetry, a heart full of ideas, a propensity for storytelling, an interest in meaning and insight, a collection of vignettes (even if you’re not quite sure how they fit together), and an open mind. All participants will have the opportunity to have 5-10 pages of writing workshopped, which will include a group discussion as well as a workshop letter, line notes, suggestions for revision, and further reading (or watching, or listening) from Kate.

 

“I adore personal essays and exploring possibilities of various forms, especially for writers who have a story, but aren’t sure how best to tell it. When chronology feels like it’s lacking, patterns can unlock narrative magic. Careful noticing, vivid detail, and unlikely connections create meaningful, exciting work.” - Kate

Kate Devine is a writer, teacher, and the creator of Mood Barre. Her essays and poems have been published in New York Magazine’s The Cut and various literary magazines. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Originally from coastal New Jersey, she currently calls Catskill, New York home.

Questions? Send me a note katemdevine@gmail.com, @katemdevine

Enrollment is limited, and registration will be open until class fills.
Please be sure when registering. There are no refunds.