Announcing Our Winter 2025 Narratively Academy Classes!
Want to break into travel writing, finish your memoir or learn how to write personal essays that get published?
Folks, I have bad news for you… It’s almost New Year’s resolutions time. I’m sorry but it’s true: only 15 more days of the hedonistic celebratory season before we all have to start thinking about how we’re going to better ourselves and, like, succeed at stuff. Ugh! OK but seriously, if your 2025 goals include starting your memoir, finally finishing your memoir or getting an essay published for the very first time, you’re going to want to check out our upcoming Narratively Academy writing classes. We have an incredible lineup of returning faves from our inaugural Academy year, plus a bunch of brand-new classes with instructors I am so stoked to add to the mix. And we’re kicking off the new year with a completely free class featuring one of our storytelling heroes! Plus, you can get 15% off any of these classes if you take advantage of our early bird special and sign up by December 31. Just use the code EARLY at checkout.
But first, if you’re like me and haven’t finished started your holiday shopping yet, I have good news: 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.
Our first class of the year is a free seminar with none other than Lee Gutkind, legendary journalist and founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine — a.k.a. the man Vanity Fair dubbed “the Godfather behind creative nonfiction.” On Wednesday, January 8, Lee will join me for a conversation about how you can make nonfiction writing — from essays to biography to reporting — even more exciting than fiction.
But what if you’re already deep into your writing project and have made it to the single most terrifying stage: revision?! 😬😬😬 I know some of you might not believe this, but revising your own work can actually be fun — as long as you have a concrete plan for how to tackle it. We’re so fortunate to have Katey Schultz, the former artistic director at Interlochen College of Creative Arts, joining us this January with her amazing class, 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.
If you’re just starting to think about how your memoir might take shape, this one’s for you. 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.
Looking to unlock your writer’s block? 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. One of the very happy students in our first sold-out edition of this class reported that “getting a daily prompt on such varied topics really made me think in a different way and opened up my creativity. It also got me into a rhythm of writing and now I have momentum and motivation to write.”
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.
The students who joined Abeer Hoque for The Insider’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies this fall left feeling inspired and excited to go out there and get some funding opportunities! I actually just heard back from one writer who, after taking the class, was encouraged to apply for the writing residency of her dreams and couldn’t believe she got accepted. We’re so lucky to have Abeer back teaching another session of her class this winter. It’s an intimate class with only eight seats, which will surely go very quickly.
We’re also 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!”
OK, I can’t pick favorites out of all of these upcoming classes but I am willing to predict that this one is gonna be the quickest of the season to sell out. I just have a feeling there are a lot of you journal-writing fiends out there who need this one, yeah? 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.
Way too much of today’s travel writing centers around Instagram-perfect photo shoots and trendy hacks. This isn’t that. In The Art and Ethics of Writing Travel Memoir, led by the wonderful Kerra Bolton, students will learn to craft authentic travel narratives that honor the people and places they encounter. If you want to get your travel writing published — and explore the complexities of cultural engagement and responsible storytelling — don’t miss this one.
I’m so happy to have Brad Scriber — who worked as a fact-checker at National Geographic for two decades — 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.
Speaking of nonfiction books, one of our most in-demand classes from our first year was The Art of Writing a Nonfiction Book That Reads Like a Novel, and we’re pleased to announce that Audrey Clare Farley will be back to teach another session this March. “Audrey has the rare ability to listen to each of her students, to synthesize their goals and questions and help find paths forward with our projects,” writes one recent student. If you’re aiming to get that big nonfiction or memoir book project moving this fall, this one’s for you.
Last but certainly not least, 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. If you’re ready to kick your freelance writing career into high gear, this class is a must.
