Introducing Narratively Academy

If your 2024 goals include kickstarting your creativity, getting your stories published or finalizing that big book project, you’ve come to the right place.

Hello, world! Our team at Narratively is over the moon to announce the next big step in our growth as a creative community for writers and storytellers: Narratively Academy! Starting today, Narratively Academy is offering results-driven classes, seminars and writing critiques taught by Narratively’s editors, contributors and storytelling heroes. All of our classes will be conducted online (for now!) and are accessible to students anywhere in the world. We’ve been busy putting together an exciting lineup of initial classes, detailed below and custom-designed to suit the diverse needs of our reader community — whether you’re an established journalist seeking to refine your skills, or a first-time writer who wants that push to finally put pen to paper.

Our first four classes are now open for registration. Keep reading for a rundown of what we have on tap.

I’m thrilled to be personally teaching one of our very first classes: The Longform Feature: Reporting Big Stories That Demand Attention. If you’ve always wanted to write a big, epic story — for Narratively or another publication — this is the class for you. Over 10 weeks in this class / mentorship program, you’ll develop an ambitious reported story while receiving personalized feedback and instruction at each stage: your ideas and pitches, the research and reporting process, interviewing, story structure, writing a draft and more. If your 2024 goal is to finally dive into that one big article idea and make it a reality, I’d absolutely love to have you join this class.

I’m also delighted that one of my all-time favorite writers I’ve worked with at Narratively, Kern Carter, will be leading an inspiring class called Telling Your Story: The 60-Minute Seminar for Kickstarting Your Memoir. Kern is an incredibly motivating and nurturing writing coach with a particular commitment to supporting diverse voices and mentoring emerging writers. I recently joined one of his writing seminars and left so inspired and excited to write my own memoir piece. If your New Year’s resolution is to finally start writing your life story in 2024, this class is for you!

And how about that big book project you promised yourself you’d finish this year? We’ve got you covered! Audrey Clare Farley is leading an 8-week workshop-based class on The Art of Writing a Nonfiction Book That Reads Like a Novel. Audrey’s viral Hidden History story for Narratively grew into an acclaimed book, The Unfit Heiress, currently in development as a scripted TV series with a major actress and producer attached. Her second book, Girls and Their Monsters, was named a New York Times Editors’ Pick. I can’t think of anyone better suited than Audrey to lead this intimate, hands-on class, in which students will get the chance to workshop their own nonfiction book project and learn all about how to get it published.

Narratively Contributing Editor Shawna Kenney, who has successfully sold articles everywhere from The New York Times to Ms. magazine and Vice, plus countless other outlets over her illustrious decades-long freelance writing career, will teach The Insider’s Guide to Pitching Top Publications. This intensive three-hour seminar will give you all the tools you need to write winning pitches that editors will assign. If you’re ready to kick your freelance writing career into high gear, this class is a must.

But wait! There’s more. One of the things we’ve heard most consistently from writers is that you want the chance to get personalized feedback on your work. So, as part of Narratively Academy, we’re very pleased to offer a brand new service: Narratively Critiques. Whether you’d like feedback on your short piece, a 5,000-word story or your entire book, we’re ready to dive in. This service is open to anyone, whether you’re a professional journalist or a first-time writer. Just send us your work and we’ll get back to you with an in-depth developmental edit, including specific notes throughout, a detailed overall plan for perfecting your story (or larger project), and a one-on-one phone consultation with you to discuss and answer your questions. I’ll be personally handling the first round of critiques and I can’t wait to get going on these. (Or if there’s another Narratively editor you’d love to work with, feel free to request them.)

We’re offering an introductory special of 15 percent off of all critiques.

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Questions? Not sure which class is right for you? Don’t see what you’re looking for and want to suggest a different class we should offer? Want to teach a class yourself? Drop us a line: academy@narratively.com.

And look out for announcements of more classes and seminars coming soon!