Generative Workshop in Creative Non-Fiction

December 10, 2015

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Tell the story only you can tell. Start today.

The Generative Writing workshops emphasize the production of new work. Each week an optional prompt and maximum word count will encourage you generate up to 3000 words of new nonfiction. These can be individual flash essays, a connected series of vignettes or lyric fragments, or the building blocks of a single personal essay, literary journalism feature, memoir chapter, or hybrid of one or more CNF forms. You are welcome to share your responses with the class, or not, as you choose.


 About the Instructor

Chelsea Biondolillo has a dual MFA in creative writing and environmental studies from the University of Wyoming. In 2012, she was an NSF-funded Think Write Publish communication fellow, and in 2014 she was awarded the Carter Prize for the Essay from Shenandoah. Her prose has appeared or is forthcoming in Orion, Sonora Review, Guernica, River Teeth, Hayden’s Ferry Review and others. She has written on the art of essay for Essay Daily, Brevity, Passages North, and Creative Nonfiction. Her journalism has appeared in Nautilus, Science, and on state and national public radio. She is currently working on a book about vultures that combines travel, memoir, ecology, and natural history. Her prose chapbook Ologies is forthcoming from Etchings Press.


This course will “meet” throughout the month of December and the beginning of January. You will have continuous access to a shared, secure course space throughout the span of the workshop, and will receive a set of exercises, examples, and prompts at the start of each week.

At the end of each week you’ll have the opportunity to turn in a short section of prose for formal feedback from your instructor, who will give you editorial comments as well as suggestions for expansion in your reading and craft. You’ll also be able to ask questions in the course space, including in an “office hours” forum.

Go at your own pace, but generate as much as you can, and you are encouraged to post your results, marathon-style, to the class space (and give feedback if you’ve got time!). There will also be a forum available on the course page where you and the rest of the workshop group can communicate with one another about ideas, questions, and your favorite sources for inspiration, ideas, and motivation.

Apiary’s workshops are designed to provide both one-on-one instructor feedback and guidance, and a learning environment and supportive community to share in with your peers.


What you can expect

  • a password-protected space in which to share work with your workshop leader and peers
  • 4 rounds of weekly feedback and instructive support with your workshop leader (submission amounts per week range from 500-1000 words, for feedback, developmental suggestions and suggested readings); and encouragement of peer feedback
  • “office hours” in the form of private messaging and forum responses
  • focused attention to the development and exploration of your own craft and language. This is about your work, and where you want to go.
  • a supportive environment for your writing, always.

Sign-ups will remain open through Sunday the 13th, midnight PST

Generative Writing Workshop – CNF
$199.00
four weeks
Image credit: Thomas Huang