Online Opportunities at the Community of Writers Virtual Valley
The Virtual Valley is among the newer online offerings from the Community of Writers. Like the Writers Annex, the Virtual Valley offers year-round programming without the need to apply for admission. In the Virtual Valley, poets and writers of all skill levels can take advantage of poetry first-aid sessions, weekend intensives, lectures, craft talks and more. Join our mailing list to stay abreast of the latest offerings from the Virtual Valley and the Writers Annex.
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View Upcoming, Current, and Past Events & Offerings Below:
I , Too, Sing America: Langston Hughes and his Contemporaries – A Short Course led by Major Jackson and Emily Bernard
On the eve of the centenary publication of The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes’s debut volume of poetry, we are proud to present, “I, Too, Sing America.” We celebrate Langston Hughes’s life as an essential poet, playwright, memoirist, translator, and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
A writer who found inspiration in everyday people, their customs and music, Hughes’ evolution as a cultural and political writer inspired generations of writers on multiple continents. This short course will close read his most important and some obscure poems while addressing his significance as an American writer who, along with his contemporaries, first ushered in the possibilities of literature to address the dreams, aspirations, and political freedom of human beings around the globe. In addition, we will also discuss several prose works by Hughes that dramatize his perspectives on the complex dynamics between Black artists and their expanding readerships, consuming audiences, and structures of support in the twentieth century.
A Short Course on Moby Dick: Things of this World and the Next, led by Peter Orner. October & November 2025
The Writers’ Annex is proud to present an upcoming course led by Peter Orner: Things of this World and the Next, a short Course on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Due to popular demand following Orner’s 2024 short course on James Joyce’s Ulysses, author and Dartmouth professor Peter Orner will return to the Writers’ Annex in the fall of 2025 to lead a new short course. All of Moby Dick in six guided sessions, with a bonus seventh session as well as discussion groups, additional essays and short stories, and many other opportunities. Over 14 hours of programming. An early bird discount is available through October 14, 2025. An additional discount is available to past Writers’ Annex participants.
Join us for a Short Course on the Craft of Ursula K. Le Guin, led by author Karen Joy Fowler. Along with weekly guests, Fowler will work through the life and craft of the esteemed author, poet and essayist. Course includes 8+ hours of instruction time, a headquarters page with additional resources, optional discussion groups, assigned readings, and much more. Limited financial aid is available upon inquiry. Join us Thursdays, January 18 to February 8 as we explore the life and craft of Ursula K. Le Guin.
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That Poetry, By Which I Lived: A Short Course on the Poetry of Galway Kinnell, led by Major Jackson
Online Tuesdays & Thursdays, November 30 to December 14, 2023
Galway Kinnell emerged as one of the most important poets of his generation simply for the distinct insistence on the primacy of our human natures, which served as an immense source for his ecological and spiritual imagination. Guided by a rapturous and ecstatic spirit attuned to the consciousness, pleasures, and injustices of his age, his poems exhibit inherent moral and social visions and invite readers to revel in that which binds us to each other and the natural world. We will study a selection of poems by this influential poet whose attitudes toward poetry and life shaped the ethos of the Community of Writers Poetry Program.
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An American Original: A Short Course on the Poetry of C.D. Wright
Online-Thursdays, August 31-September 28, 2023
C.D. Wright’s poetry is some of the most beloved and legendary work of our literary era. She was a uniquely original writer but she was also part of— and helped to form— a vast unfolding literary community from the 1980s until her untimely death in 2016, traditions that included Elliptical, Documentary, Southern, Experimental, and Narrative Poetries; in addition, she was a master of the short lyric and the long poem. Aside from the visceral pleasures of reading her work, what do we have to learn from a writer with such a wide range of approaches to the poem? And how did she come to be the expansive writer we know? Poets Forrest Gander and Brenda Hillman will guide participants through an overview of Wright’s extraordinary writing. The course will be designed for those who know Wright’s work already, as well as for those encountering her poetry for the first time.
This course will take place on Vimeo, an online platform.
Dates/Times: Thursdays: August 31-September 28 4:00-6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom
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Writing Through the Senses: A Weekend Intensive with Janet Fitch
Online: Friday, May 19 to Sunday, May 21, 2023
“Observation is the first act of the imagination,”said poet William Crlos Williams. But these days, we spend most of our time shut up in dimmed rooms, staring at screens–and our writing shows it. This workshop is designed to get the writer back into the body, back in touch with physical reality, invigorating the writing with the richness of the sensual, a portal to memory and the imagination.
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Comet of Stillness: A Short Course on the poetry of W.S. Merwin
Online Sundays, January 22 to February 19, 2023: 4-6PM PST
W.S. Merwin’s poetry was visionary, ecological, anti-war, and humanist, and exhibits a clarity and strangeness that continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary American poetry. The goal of these five sessions is to dive deeply into this extraordinary poet and his body of work. Across five sessions, poets Victoria Chang and Matthew Zapruder will facilitate close-readings of key poems, and will situate the poems, and the poet, in their historical contexts. The course will explore Merwin’s formal innovations, his thematic concerns, and his development as a poet from his earliest work to his final poems. Chang and Zapruder will introduce, and talk with, key figures from his literary life, including Merwin’s long-time editor at Copper Canyon Press, Michael Wiegers.
In addition to course meetings, Chang and Zapruder will provide additional reading materials. Each session will begin with an hour of discussion, including background and close readings, followed by a ten-minute break. The session will then reconvene for a second hour in which Chang and Zapruder will discuss thoughts from the chat, answer questions, and offer further insights. Each session will end with an optional poetry writing prompt based on Merwin’s poetry.
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A Short Course in The Waste Land
Online-Thursdays,September 1-29,2022
“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot, published in 1922, is widely regarded as one of the most influential, powerful— and at times one of the most controversial—modernist poems of the twentieth century. The poem’s collaged, fragmentary style, its frequent shifts among speakers, its use of literary allusions and its storied “difficulty” gave new meaning to literary engagement when the poem reached its first readers.
To celebrate the centenary of the iconic 434-line poem, Community of Writers staff poets Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman will guide readers through an examination and a meditative reading of the five parts of “The Waste Land” on five consecutive Thursdays of September, focusing on one part per session, tracing the poem’s memorable imagery and references in an investigation of its themes and legendary lines. In this time of climate change, pandemic and global despair, special attention will be paid to the way the poem is still relevant as it addresses urban environmental anxiety and the human condition, perhaps with an eye to finding how its techniques and phrases might deliver an odd comfort and energy for our time.
This course will take place on Zoom or a similar platform.
Dates/Times: Thursdays in September, 2022 4:00-6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom
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Point of View: A Weekend Intensive with Janet Fitch
May 13 – May 15, 2022
In this weekend intensive, we will plunge into the fascinating subject of Point Of View. Using a wide range of examples, we’ll uncover the assets and limitations of the various forms–what you gain and lose when you use select one over another. We’ll ponder the differences between first person and third, address the place of voice in point of view, take note of the variations within third person, as well as examining the use of the quirky second person. Finally, we will take on the question of the venerable—and oft maligned–Authorial Omniscient, how it is constructed and sustained, its uses and pitfalls, and discuss the critical issue of authorial or narrative voice.
This weekend intensive is taught by Janet Fitch.
Offered Friday night, May 13 to Sunday night, May 15, in five 2 hour Zoom sessions, with selected readings, in-class exercises and out of class assignments.
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Introducing A New Short Course: Introduction to the Poetry and Poetics of Lucille Clifton, taught by poet Kazim Ali
Online Thursdays, April 21-May 12, 2022
Lucille Clifton’s legacy as a poet, writer, and educator is far reaching and fundamental to the poetics of the 20th century and today. Championed by such giants as Robert Hayden, Toni Morrison, and Carolyn Kizer early in her career, Clifton became one of the major American poets of the last part of the 20th century.
This short course in Clifton’s work will examine the major themes and qualities of her poetry. No background in poetry is necessary to learn and enjoy the majestic poetic work of Lucille Clifton.
Kazim Ali studied with her at the Community of Writers in the summer of 1998, and has published several critical essays on her work. He remained friends with her the rest of her life. She is one of two people on the planet who are allowed to call him “Kaz.”
This short, online course is for anyone who has an interest in reading or writing poetry. All are welcome.
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The Community of Writers is honored to present a six-week intensive series on the life and work of poet Czeslaw Milosz taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Hass.
Thursdays, January 20 – February 24, 2022
Czeslaw Milosz, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980 and is generally regarded as one of the great poets of the twentieth century, produced a large and various body of poetry. His friend and neighbor Robert Hass worked with him on the translation of his poems for more than twenty-five years. Many of those make up the body of work collected in Czesław Miłosz, New and Collected Poems, a compilation which takes us across much of the intense life of the European twentieth century, in a poetry that uses ceaselessly inventive techniques and approaches to a range of subjects.
How does the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz read in the early twenty-first century? This intensive series offers a chance to read through this brilliant and challenging body of work guided by former director of the Community of Writers’ Poetry Workshop, Robert Hass. Our host will be poet Jesse Nathan, who will moderate and join the discussions.
This short course is for anyone who has an interest in reading or writing poetry. All are welcome.
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December 3 – 5, 2021
In this three-day writing intensive, we’ll explore the essentials of the dialogue scene including internal thoughts, character observation, spin, conflict, gesture, landscape, the Million Dollar Line and the multi-character dialogue scene. The format combines lecture and generative exercises, in-class discussion and experiential assignments.
The ultimate test of fiction writing is the dialogue scene. It’s where we have to ride a unicycle around a ring while spinning a dozen plates in the air. Good dialogue incorporates every other aspect of fiction writing plus—people speak. When you ask editors and agents ‘What aspect of writing tends to be most problematic in the fiction you see?” the answer, across the board, is “dialogue.” Why, when we’ve heard people talk all our lives? Because dialogue in life is very different from dialogue on the page. Dialogue on the page is art. And more than any other facet of fiction writing, it’s dialogue that separates the intermediate writer from the pro.
Five, two-hour virtual sessions, with writing exercises in between. Give your writing an early Christmas gift! $280 early bird special, $350 after Nov. 15.
This event will be held entirely on Zoom.
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A day-long gathering of writers in the virtual valley featuring craft talks, panels, fiction and nonfiction readings, poetry, music, and more.
SATURDAY, JULY 17
8:30 AM – 7:00 PM (PST)
This year’s online 51st annual Community of Writers Fiction Workshop presents a free, day-long online Festival on Saturday, July 17. Co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), the Festival features craft talks, panels, readings, and more.
We are delighted too present a special conversation between two internationally acclaimed alums, novelist Amy Tan, and dramatist-actress Anna Deavere Smith. Decades after attending the workshop as participants, the two are reunited in support of the West’s longest-running creative writing workshops.
Bestselling novelist Janet Fitch begins with her talk “Writing with the Senses.” She is followed by a panel on how literary nonprofits overcame the challenges of this difficult year and worked together. Also featured are a celebration of the late screenwriter Gill Dennis’ legendary “Finding the Story” workshop, a talk by novelist Michelle Latiolais, panels examining fiction, nonfiction and screenwriting techniques, and staff readings from their own work. Tom Barbash will lead a “Deep Dive into a Short story” (to prepare, see details, below.*) And a first for the Community of Writers: We will feature naturalist Will Richardson on a virtual nature walk in Paige Meadows. The festival will conclude with a special reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, and music by the CE Trio, as well as Louis B. Jones, Sands Hall, Caridwen Irvine-Spatz and Greg Spatz.
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Join Us For An Extraordinary Evening of Poetry!
This year we are pleased to welcome seven extraordinary poets including three Pulitzer Prize winners, a recipient of the Griffin International Prize, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winner, two National Book Critics Circle Award winners, and a recipient of the Pushcart Prize.
Thursday, June 24, 2021 via Zoom
5:30 p.m. Pacific Time
Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
Suggested Donation $20
This gathering of the community—all staff poets from this year’s Community of Writers’ Summer Poetry Workshop in the Virtual Valley—will raise money for our scholarship fund.
Books by the poets will be available for purchase through bookshop.org before and after the reading.
Click on the author portraits to learn about these poets and their work. Or view their bios as a list here.
Kazim Ali • Blas Falconer • Forrest Gander • Robert Hass
Brenda Hillman • Sharon Olds • Evie Shockley
This reading is presented in conjunction with our annual Poetry Program during which poets — participants and staff poets — write a new poem each day. At this reading, you may hear a reading of a poem written this week!
Community of Writers Poetry Workshop alum Ananda Lima will emcee the event, and read some of her work.
The Community of Writers celebrates fifty years of our poetry week with an extraordinary collection by some of the country’s most prominent contemporary poets. Why To These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers includes over 140 poems inspired by or written in the High Sierra during the annual Poetry week.
At this reading some of these poets may read their anthology poem.
Reserve your ticket today!
Please join us as we partner with Beers Books and Random Lane Summer Poetry Reading Series for a poetry reading to celebrate our anthology Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers.
Friday, June 11 @ 6:00 PM PST/8:00 PM EST
This reading is dedicated to the memory of Al Young former California Poetry Laureate, and long-time CW Board Member and Workshop Leader.
Emcee, Lisa D. Alvarez, Editor
Hosted by former Sacramento Poet Laureate Bob Stanley
featuring readings from:
Noah Blaustein • Victoria Dalkey • Blas Falconer
Cody Gates • Brenda Hillman • Renato Rosaldo • Shelley Wong
with a special appearance by Al Young’s son Michael Young who will read Al’s poem from the Anthology.
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A Weekend Intensive with Patricia K. Meyer & Megan Fay Raveneau
Friday, July 23 – Sunday, July 25. 3, 2-hour sessions.
Identifying the dramatic structure of your story, whether it’s a memoir, novel, short story, or screenplay, is key. A writer must know where the inciting incidents occur, lay out the crucial turning points that propel the character along their journey. In this course you will learn how a screenwriter builds a scaffold for character transformation and theme so that writers of all story forms can gain tools for developing their protagonist’s (and, also, antagonist’s) arc. We will discuss how character drives story, creates the plot, not the other way around. We will discuss the importance of form, not formula, as it applies to screenplay structure and enables the screenwriter to craft a moving, literally and figuratively, picture of any length. These are approaches you can take back to your prose writing and use to create more tension and stakes for your characters and their journey.
This is an intensive workshop, with three, two-hour Zoom sessions led by experienced Screenwriters and teachers Patricia K. Meyer & Megan Fay Raveneau.
Lecture, presentations, clips, in-class interactive exercises. Open to prose-writers and screenwriters of all levels.
Limited financial aid available.
Three, two-hour sessions:
Friday: 5:00-7:00 pm (Pacific).
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00- 12:00 noon (Pacific)
Tuition:
- Early-Bird Tuition: $200 (Register by June 1, 2021)
- Regular Tuition: $250. (Register by 9:00 AM Thursday, July 22)
A weekend Intensive with Janet Fitch
Friday, May 21 – Sunday, May 23. Five, 2-hour sessions.
This class is led by bestselling novelist, Janet Fitch.
As any agent or editor will tell you, it’s not enough to write beautifully. Have you ever read a novel that was
splendidly written and yet, you didn’t finish it? Ever written a story and asked yourself, “What the heck was this about?” How do you craft a story that’s compelling as well as beautiful?
In this weekend workshop, we will explore the ground zero of storytelling—the essential dramatic and structural elements of scene and story. We’ll discuss the elements of scene—the fundamental building block of story—with examples from literature both high and low. Then we’ll turn to the larger issue of story—learning what makes different kinds of narratives “tick”—before turning to the biggest question, the possibilities for structuring the novel.
This is an intensive workshop, with five, two-hour Zoom sessions designed to solve some of the grittiest problems of storytelling.
Lecture, discussion, in-class exercises and exercises between sessions. Open to writers of all levels.
June 19 – 26, 2021
The Poetry Program at the Community of Writers is founded on the belief that when poets gather in a community to write new poems, each poet may well break through old habits and write something stronger and truer than before. Although we can’t gather in person, nonetheless we will work together to create an atmosphere in which everyone might feel free to try anything. (See Daily Schedule, below.)
More Details & To Apply
July 11 – 17 , 2021
These workshops assist serious writers by exploring the art and craft as well as the business of writing —all online. The week offers daily morning workshops, craft lectures, panel discussions on editing and publishing, staff readings, and brief individual conferences. The daily workshops are led by staff writer-teachers. Six separate morning workshops sections will meet daily. In addition to workshop, participants may have the same manuscript read by a staff member who meets with them in individual conferences. Travel, self-help, how-to, or scholarly works will not be considered.
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August 1 – 6 , 2021 in the Virtual Valley
These workshops are designed to assist serious writers by exploring the art and craft as well as the business of writing. The week includes daily morning workshops, craft lectures, panel discussions on editing and publishing, staff readings, and brief individual conferences. The morning workshops, led by staff writer-teachers, comprise tracks devoted to both memoir and narrative nonfiction. In addition to having a manuscript addressed in workshop, participants may have the same manuscript read by a staff member, discussed in individual conference. This is not the conference for travel, self-help, how-to, or scholarly works. If you are working on fiction, please see our Fiction Workshop.
Financial Aid Available.
More Details & To Apply
SkyLight Books Hosts a Group Reading to celebrate
Why To These Rocks: 
50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers
Wednesday, April 21 | 6:30 PM (Pacific)
Virtual event on Crowdcast. Registrants will be sent a Crowdcast link upon registration.
The Community of Writers will join SkyLight Books online for a virtual poetry reading for Heyday’s release of Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers. The evening will celebrate fifty years of poetry written during the Poetry Workshop in the High Sierra.
Emcee: Lisa D. Alvarez, the project’s editor.
Join Francisco Aragón, Joan Baranow, Katie Ford, Jay A. Fernandez, Lester Graves Lennon, Michelle Brittan Rosado, Vickie Vértiz, Sholeh Wolpé, and Charles Harper Webb for another celebration of the publication of this extraordinary anthology, as they read and discuss poems first written during the Community of Writers Poetry Workshop.
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Blas Falconer • Brenda Hillman • Gregory Pardlo
Quick ten-minute consultations will be offered in the Virtual Valley (though Zoom) with some of our wonderful staff poets, Blas Falconer, Brenda Hillman and Gregory Pardlo. We ask that you limit yourself to one specific question about your poem-in-progress. Your poem or poem excerpt should be less than one-page long, and will be read during the appointment. (Zoom’s share screen function.)
The Sierra Poetry Festival Hosts a Group Reading to celebrate
Why To These Rocks: 
50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers
Sunday, April 11 | 11:30 AM (Pacific)
The Community of Writers will join the Sierra Poetry Festival online for a virtual poetry reading for Heyday’s release of Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers.
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Why To These Rocks: 
50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers
THURSDAY, April 1 | 5:30PM (Pacific)
Virtual event on Zoom. Registrants will be sent a Zoom link upon registration.
The Community of Writers and the Mechanics Institute, the venerable San Francisco institution, invite you to a virtual poetry reading for Heyday Books’ release of Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers. The evening will celebrate fifty years of poetry written during the Poetry Workshop in the High Sierra.
Join Heather Altfeld, Mónica de la Torre, Shangyang Fang, Ken Haas, Troy Jollimore and Margaret Rhee for another celebration of the publication of this extraordinary anthology, as they read and discuss poems first written during the Community of Writers’ Poetry Workshop.
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Please join us as we partner with the Studio One and their
Poetry Reading Series
on Friday, March 19th @ 5:30 PM PST/8:30 PM EST
to celebrate our anthology Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers
featuring readings from:
Kazim Ali • Arlene Biala • Jennifer Swanton Brown • Blas Falconer
Molly Fisk • Major Jackson • Danusha Laméris • Robert Lipton
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Why To These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers
THURSDAY, MARCH 11TH | 6:30PM
Virtual event on Zoom. Registrants will be sent a Zoom link upon registration.
REGISTER TO ATTEND LAUNCH EVENT
The Community of Writers, the Marin Poetry Center and the Mill Valley Public Library invite you to a virtual book launch for Heyday Books’ release of Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers. The evening will celebrate fifty years of poetry written during the Poetry Workshop in the High Sierra.
Join Cornelius Eady, Brenda Hillman, Evie Shockley (via recording) along with Pulitzer Prize winners Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, and Gregory Pardlo, and others to celebrate the publication of this extraordinary anthology, as they read and discuss poems first written during the Community of Writers’ Poetry Workshop.
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Join us for private online consultations: Fiction and Memoir First Aid!
Friday, February 26. Appointments available between 10 am and 5:30 p.m (Pacific)
Private 15-Minute Appointments $30
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Sands Hall, Devi S. Laskar, Krys Lee, and Tom Lutz Come with a question. Or come with a page. Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you.
Open Workshop
A special workshop led by Sands Hall.
February 18 – March 25
Thursdays from 4 – 5:30 PM (Pacific). Note: There will be no session on Thursday, March 11
Six 90-minute sessions: $100
Register by Noon on February 17
Sands Hall leads the Open Workshop, which provides opportunity for alums to share their writing with their peers. The Open Workshop is a Writers Workshops favorite. This summer and fall, we are offering an online version of this spontaneous, productive, and fun workshop. Instead of Open Workshop’s usual lottery system, each participant is guaranteed at least two opportunities to read their work.
Join us for private consultations: Fiction and Memoir First Aid!
Saturday, January 30, 2021.
Private 15-Minute Appointments $30
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Janet Fitch, Rachel Howard, Victoria Patterson, Oscar Villalon.
Come with a question. Or come with a page (limit 250 words). Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you.
Sign up for a consultation today.
More Details & Register
2020 Poem First Aid
Kazim Ali • Brenda Hillman • Evie Shockley
Quick ten-minute consultations will be offered in the Virtual Valley (though Zoom) with some of our wonderful staff poets, Kazim Ali, Brenda Hillman, and Evie Shockley. We ask that you limit yourself to one specific question about your poem-in-progress. Your poem or poem excerpt should be less than one-page long, and will be read during the appointment. (Zoom’s share screen function.)
A Weekend Intensive with Janet Fitch
January 22-24, 2021
Pablo Neruda once said, “Two things make a story. The net and the air that falls through the net.”
If the net is plot, character, scene and story, the air is language, what happens inside the sentence. In this weekend intensive workshop, we’ll look at the possibilities of prose: sentence structure, diction and point of view, the poetics of rhythm, sound, image. We’ll explore the sentences of the great prose stylists, see how they produced their effects, and use their examples as jumping off points to experiment with new ways of handling prose. This workshop will get you out of habitual patterns and heighten your awareness of the possibilities of prose style, not for its own sake, but so that you can write more powerfully, more beautifully, with control and understanding, and develop awareness of style in literary fiction.
The Art of the Sentence is led by bestselling novelist, Janet Fitch.
The format combines lecture and generative exercises, in-class discussion and experiential assignments. Suitable for fiction writers, memoirists, poets and anyone ready to reconnect with their artistic potential.
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Announcing two mid-winter Micro Workshops on Ecopoetics in the Virtual Valley:
This January and February, the Poetry Program of the Community of Writers is delighted to offer two micro workshops on Ecopoetics led by Brenda Hillman.
Join us in the Virtual Valley for two separate workshops in which we will explore the way nature and ecopoetics manifest in your poems. The workshop will focus on exploration of new work by participants.
Session I: Monday, January 25, 2021
Session II: Monday, February 8, 2021
This program is only open to alums of the Poetry Workshop of the Community of Writers.
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2020 Poem First Aid
Camille Dungy • Gregory Pardlo • Matthew Zapruder
Friday, December 11, 2020
Quick ten-minute consultations will be offered in the Virtual Valley (though Zoom) with two of our staff poets, Camille Dungy, Gregory Pardlo, Matthew Zapruder.We ask that you limit yourself to one specific question about your poem-in-progress. Your poem or poem excerpt should be less than one-page long, and will be read during the appointment. (Zoom’s share screen function.)
Private 10-Minute Appointments: $18.
This program is only open to alums of the Poetry Workshop of the Community of Writers.
More Details & Register
Join us for private consultations: Fiction and Memoir First Aid!
Saturday, December 5, 2020.
Private 15-Minute Appointments $30
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Alex Espinoza, Janet Fitch, Sands Hall, and Dana Johnson.
Come with a question. Or come with a page (limit 250 words). Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you.
More Details & to Register
Join us for private consultations: Fiction and Memoir First Aid!
November 20, 2020, between 10 am and 5 p.m (Pacific)
Private 15-Minute Appointments $30
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Natalie Baszile, Janet Fitch, Glen David Gold, and Michael Jaime Becerra.
More Details and to Register
Join us for private consultations: 2020 Poem First Aid
Blas Falconer • Brenda Hillman
Friday, November 13, 2020
More Details and to Register
Join us for private consultations: Fiction and Memoir First Aid!
October 23, 2020, between 10 am and 5 p.m (Pacific)
Private 15-Minute Appointments $25
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Janet Fitch, Vanessa Hua, Dylan Landis, and Tom Lutz Come with a question. Or come with a page. Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you.
Sign up for a consultation today. You will be paired with one of these generous and talented writer-teachers. (You may request your top two choices of staff member, subject to availability. ) If there is a time of day (between 10 AM – 3 PM Pacific) that doesn’t work for you, please let us know.
Come with a question: Issues about dialogue, prose style, characterization? Come to the session prepared with a question or more than one! The time is yours.
Or come with a page: Need help with dialogue or prose style? Submit one page, double spaced (limit 250 words), and a staff member will respond to what’s on the page and beyond.
To read a bio, click on the image below, or view them all as a list.
Registration open now, and closes Friday, July 25 at 8:00 AM (Pacific).
REGISTER
Once you register, we will be in touch with your appointment details.
Please make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the most recent version of Zoom and have good audio and video available.
(Cancellations for full refunds, to be considered, must be requested before 8 am on Friday.)
*Thanks to Sharon Olds who originally coined this term for the Poetry Workshop’s “Poem First Aid.”
2020 Alumni Reading Series
Each summer, recently published alumni are invited to return to the Valley to read from their books and talk about their journey from unpublished writers to published authors. This year we’ve decided to hold the reading online in the Virtual Valley!
The Community of Writers is delighted to celebrate the success of these writers and to present them to the participants, staff, and the public.
Please join us! The event is free and will be presented on Zoom.
2020 Alumni Readers
Click on the portraits to learn about these authors and their work. View as a List
Our Emcee for the evening is Jimin Han.
Alumni who have been part of this reading series include Anita Amirrezvani, Eddy Ancinas, Michael Andreason, Ramona Ausubel, David Bajo, Aimee Bender, Mauro Cardenas, Jade Chang, David Corbett, Charmaine Craig, Frances Dinkelspiel, Heather Donahue, Laurie Ann Doyle, Cai Emmons, Alex Espinoza, Carole Firstman, Joshua Ferris, Amy Franklin-Willis, Jamie Ford, Vicki Forman, Alison Singh Gee, Tanya Egan Gibson, Alan Grostephan, Glen David Gold, Jimin Han, Judith Hendricks, Susan Henderson, Sara J. Henry, Vanessa Hua, Rhoda Huffey, Michael Jaime-Becerra, Alma Katsu, Stephanie Kegan, Mary Kuryla, Krys Lee, Paulette Livers, Regina Louise, Michael David Lukas, Peyton Marshall, Marisa Matarazzo, Mark Maynard, Christina Meldrum, Nayomi Munaweera, Janis Cooke Newman, Jessica O’Dwyer, Aline Ohanesian, Marian Palaia, Victoria Patterson, Ismet Prcic, Frederick Reiken, Andrew Roe, Robin Romm, Brian Rogers, Elizabeth Rosner, Adrienne Sharp, Alice Sebold, Julia Flynn Siler, Jordan Fisher Smith, Scott Sparling, Ellen Sussman, Kimball Taylor, Lisa Tucker, Juan Alvarado Valdivia, Brenda Rickman Vantrease, Mary Volmer, Dora Calott Wang, M.D., Heather Young, Andrew Winer, Alia Yunis, and Désirée Zamorano among others.
Buys books from these authors on Bookshop.org.
Reserve Ticket Now
(You will be eventually be asked to register for this event at Zoom.)
Writing from the Senses: A Weekend Intensive with Janet Fitch
Oct. 9-11, 2020, five two-hour sessions
The weekend intensive class combines lecture and generative exercises, in-class discussion and experiential assignments. Suitable for fiction writers, memoirists, poets and anyone ready to reconnect with the artistic potential of sensual reality. This class is led by bestselling novelist, Janet Fitch and will be held entirely on Zoom.
Discounted tuition ($280) before October 1. After that, the Regular tuition is $330.
This program is open to alums of the Community of Writers as well as members of the public.
More Details
Recent Events:
Fiction (and Memoir) First Aid: Private Consultations by Appointment:
September 25, 2020, between 10 am and 5 p.m (Pacific)
First-come first-served: appointments are limited.
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our wonderful writer-teachers, including Janet Fitch, Sands Hall, Krys Lee, and Margaret Wilkson Sexton Come with a question. Or come with a page! Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you. Sands Hall will work with Memoir and Fiction.
Private 15-Minute Appointments $25
This program is open to alums of the Community of Writers as well as members of the public.
More Details
Please join us for these Public Events at the Community of Writers during Memoir Week in the Virtual Valley. These events are on Zoom and are free. (Please consider a donation.)
Monday, 8/3, 4:00 PM (Pacific): “Effective Strategies for Memoir & Nonfiction,” featuring:
Debra Gwartney • Elizabeth Rosner • Grace Talusan
moderated by Sands Hall
Tuesday, 8/4, 4:00 PM: “Who Am I This Time? Revisioning Memoir,” featuring:
Alex Espinoza • Christine Hemp • Sands Hall • Amy Tan
moderated by Debra Gwartney
RESERVE TICKET
Ticket reservations will close one hour before the event. Reserve early
Our Memoir staff talk about and read from their memoirs:
Tuesday, 8/4, 5:30 PM:
Debra Gwartney • Sands Hall • Grace Talusan
Thursday 8/6, 5:30 PM:
Alex Espinoza • Christine Hemp • Elizabeth Rosner
RESERVE TICKET
Ticket reservations will close one hour before the event. Reserve early
Join us for private consultations: Fiction First Aid*
July 31, 2020, between 10 am and 5 p.m (Pacific)
Quick fifteen-minute consultations will be offered on Zoom with some of our finest writer-teachers, including Alex Espinoza, Janet Fitch, Glen David Gold, Sands Hall, Dylan Landis and Krys Lee. Come with a question. Or come with a page! Having a thorny problem with a story? Worried about the end of your novel? Do you have issues about the writing life? This is the place to get fresh insight. The focus of your session is up to you.
Private 15-Minute Appointments $25
First-come first-served: appointments are limited. Sign up before 5:00 PM on Thursday, 7/30.
View as a list
♦ This session offered only to alums of the Writers Workshops ♦
Below are the Times When the Writers Are Scheduled
(Subject to availability)
10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Alex Espinoza
Janet Fitch
1:00 – 3:00 PM
Glen David Gold
Sands Hall
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Dylan Landis
Krys Lee
Come with a question: Issues about dialogue, prose style, characterization? Come to the session prepared with a question or more than one! The time is yours.
Or come with a page: Need help with dialogue or prose style? Submit one page, double spaced (limit 250 words), and a staff member will respond to what’s on the page and beyond.
Sign Ups open 12:00 Noon Monday, July 27,
and close 5:00 Noon on Thursday, July 30. (Pacific)
SIGN UP
You may request time range and staff members. Appointments subject to availability. Once you register, we will be in touch with your appointment details.
(Cancellations for full refunds, to be considered, must be requested before 5 pm on Thursday, July 30.)
*Thanks to Sharon Olds who originally coined this term for the Poetry Workshop’s “Poem First Aid.”
The Community of Writers is made possible with substantial support of these organizations. Thank you !
Recents Events:
The Community of Writers Fiction Workshop in the Virtual Valley is proud to present
“Short Takes” Fiction Readings
These readings are presented to the public as part of our first-ever Fiction workshop held entirely online.
These readings are free to attend. Donations needed and welcome.
Tuesday, July 21st • 5:30 PM Pacific
Tom Barbash • Devi S. Laskar • Krys Lee • Kirstin Valdez Quade • Gregory Spatz
Emcee: Tom Lutz
Thursday, July 23rd • 5:30 PM Pacific
Janet Fitch • Michael Jaime-Becerra • Dana Johnson • Tom Lutz • Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Emcee: Oscar Villalon
Register Now!
An Extraordinary Evening of Poetry
Click on the author portraits to learn about these poets and their work. Or view their bios as a list here.
Camille Dungy • Robert Hass • Brenda Hillman
Major Jackson • Ada Limón • Matthew Zapruder
This year we are pleased to welcome six extraordinary poets including one Pulitzer Prize winner, a recipient of the Griffin International Prize, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, two National Book Critics Circle Award winners, and a recipient of the Pushcart Prize.
Thursday, June 25, 2020 via Zoom
5:30 p.m. Pacific Time
Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
Reserve your space today!
This gathering of the community—all staff poets from this year’s Community of Writers’ Summer Poetry Workshop in Squaw Valley—will raise money for our scholarship fund, and we are delighted to announce that a portion of the proceeds raised during the reading will also benefit our friends at Cave Canem and their scholarship program. Books by the poets will be available for purchase online before and after the reading.
Community of Writers beloved and longtime poetry staff member Sharon Olds will welcome the audience to the event, and Community of Writers Poetry Workshop alum Diannely Antigua will emcee.
A 50th Anniversary Event:
An Evening at Bo’s in Manhattan with #YeahYouWrite
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Unfortunately, as concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic have grown, we are increasingly aware of the importance of limiting gatherings. We believe it’s critical that we are cautious and consider the possible risks. Thus, we are postponing the #YeahYouWrite event.
#YeahYouWrite, a standout-out reading series in Manhattan, will partner with Community of Writers for an inaugural event, the first of many across the country, to celebrate our 50th Anniversary!
The evening will feature the CW alum authors Dylan Landis, Shobha Rao, Lev Grossman, Cynthia Robinson, as well as C.W.’s own Sands Hall, who, following the readings, will host a mini-version of a COW tradition—a “Follies” talent show. #YYW Follies! All are welcome. Think five minutes. Perform flamenco, sing a song, tell a joke—anything goes!
More information about #YeahYouWrite.
A 50th Anniversary Event:
The Best of the West: The Community of Writers comes to the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Join Us on April 16, 2020 at The Annenberg Community Beach House for an evening of readings to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Community of Writers.For fifty years the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley has assembled in the California Sierra Nevada led by writers, agents, and publishers and has encouraged the careers of hundreds of writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. In this 50th anniversary celebration, local So Cal writers read on behalf of this legendary experiment in collaboration and sustenance of the art and craft of writing and the imagination.Our extraordinary readers this evening once attended the Community of Writers as participants.Click on the photo to view bio. Or view as a List
Emcees: Dana Johnson and Janet FitchFREE (More on tickets coming soon.)6:30 – 8 PM
After-Party:
TO VIEW OUR PAST PUBLIC EVENTS