Narratively Academy
Ready to tell your story? We’d love to help! Narratively is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed storytelling platform that’s been named one of Time’s “50 Best Websites” and Columbia Journalism Review’s “11 Best Experiments in Journalism.” We are incredibly proud to have edited and published 2,000+ true stories, working with thousands of storytellers from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists to emerging writers sharing their very first pieces — many who have since gone on to publish acclaimed and bestselling books. Our mission has always been to celebrate underdogs and elevate overlooked voices, and Narratively Academy is all about sharing knowledge throughout our unique and diverse community. We offer classes, seminars and writing critiques taught by Narratively’s editors, contributors and storytelling heroes. All classes are conducted online and accessible to students anywhere in the world.
Winter 2025 Classes
Katey Schultz, the former artistic director at Interlochen College of Creative Arts, is joining us this January for The Fine Art of Deep Revision. This intensive three-week workshop is designed to empower writers with concrete, actionable revision techniques they can apply to memoir, essays, short stories or novels.
In The 90-Minute Seminar for Kickstarting Your Memoir, author and writing coach Kern Carter will teach you how to find your voice, identify the parts of your life worth sharing and ensure that your memoir connects emotionally with readers.
In 28 Days, 28 Essay Prompts: A Month of Generating Inspiration and Ideas for Memoir, Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnes will send an inspiring writing prompt every day of February. You’ll take a few minutes every day (or as many days as you want to participate) to write something new in response to that prompt.
Getting published in literary journals is a great way to build your writing career, but the whole literary journal universe can sometimes feel obtuse and difficult for newcomers to navigate. In this seminar led by writer and editor Parisa Saranj, writers will learn how to identify the right journals for your writing, understand submission guidelines and craft a compelling pitch that will get your work published.
Abeer Hoque has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and the Queens Council on the Arts. In this unique two-day workshop, Abeer will guide students through how to write compelling and clear statements of purpose, and discuss how to create strong applications for grants, fellowships and artists’ residencies.
We’re thrilled to have Caroline Rothstein back to teach a second session of Deeply Personal, her intensive five-week personal essay workshop, where students explore how to craft compelling personal essays about the experiences that matter to them most. “Caroline is a caring and compassionate instructor for such deeply personal material,” writes one student. “Her energy and passion are infectious!”
In From Journal to Memoir: How to Turn Your Side Scrawls Into Literary Gold, Rebecca Evans will work through how to get your past and present writing journals organized, and explore a variety of methods that can help you shift your journals and notebooks into productive writing tools.
In The Art and Ethics of Writing Travel Memoir, led by Kerra Bolton, students will learn to craft authentic travel narratives that honor the people and places they encounter.
Brad Scriber — who worked as a fact-checker at National Geographic for two decades — is back to teach another session of The Expert’s Guide to Fact-Checking Your Nonfiction Book. An essential class for all nonfiction book authors, Brad will show you how to review your own manuscript with a fact-checker’s eye, how to decide when it’s necessary to call on outside help and how to prepare for that.
Narratively Contributing Editor Shawna Kenney, who has successfully sold articles everywhere from The New York Times to Ms. magazine, plus countless other outlets over her illustrious 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.
Critiques
As part of Narratively Academy, we’re very pleased to offer a brand-new service: Narratively Critiques. Whether you’d like feedback on your one-page pitch, a 5,000-word story or your entire book, our experienced editorial team is ready to dive in. We’ll provide 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.
Gift Cards
We now have Narratively Academy gift cards! Have a writer (or aspiring writer, or someone you have always thought should be a writer) in your life? Get them a Narratively Academy gift card and they can use it on a class of their choice.
More Classes
Each of the classes below are sold out and/or have already taken place, but we plan to be back with a new session of each one soon, Email academy@narrartively.com to join an advance waiting list for the next session of any of these classes. Just tell us which class you’re interested in and we’ll make sure you’re the first to know next time it’s offered.
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.