UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
“This week was trajectory-changing. It opened up spaces in my brain that I have returned to again and again.” – L.O.
I’ve been teaching memoir and personal narrative nonfiction to writers of all skill levels since 2011. I teach both on Zoom and in-person, from single-day to multi-week curricula. I also facilitate ongoing groups of writing students that meet on Zoom weekly to share work, receive feedback, and talk writing and reading. These groups are currently closed to new members. If you’d like to arrange a workshop for your organization or school, please contact me.
OCTOBER 8-11, 2026: FROM MEMORY TO STORY
QUARTZ MOUNTAIN, OKLAHOMA
As a teenager, I attended the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, an immersive two-week program that provides world-class training to artistically advanced Oklahoma high school students in the visual, literary, and performing arts. Students are chosen by a blind audition process, and all selected students receive a full scholarship. It’s been around since 1977, and it’s astonishing. It changed my life.
Luckily for those of us who aren’t teens anymore, there’s a mini version each fall for adults, and this October, I’ll be leading a writing workshop there. Join me for a long-weekend retreat at Quartz Mountain, where we’ll study the art of the personal narrative essay. We’ll start with a single memory and, through the act of writing, travel back to inhabit the old scene again, ask questions, and search for meaning in the raw material of our lives. If you’re an Oklahoma public school educator, you may qualify for a full scholarship. Learn more via the button below, and then click here to register.
OCTOBER 15-22, 2026: WRITING RETREAT WITH BLAND BADGER
SOMMIÈRES, FRANCE
In October of last year, we sold out the inaugural version of this retreat in Italy — so we decided to do it again, in France! Hosted by Bland Badger, who run beautiful beautiful retreats, I’ll again be co-teaching with the brilliant Felicity Cloake, along with writer Lucy Brazier and photographer Charlotte Bland. Join us in Sommières, a little medieval town between Nîmes and Monpellier, for a whole week of collaborative workshops and discussion, guided writing sessions, photography lessons, great food, a visit to the market, a splash in the pool, and free time to write and nap and rest.
JANUARY 13-30, 2027: FROM MEMORY TO STORY
ON ZOOM
Back by popular demand! I love teaching this one: a three-week, six-session online course on writing from memories. Though I’ve designed the curriculum for creative nonfiction writers, all are welcome. We’ll practice rebuilding moments and scenes from the past and writing vividly from within them. Classes are small (12 people, max) and discussion-based, and we’ll meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:30 to 11:30am PST. Offered via Los Angeles Center of Photography.
JUNE 21-25, 2027: TINY TRUE STORIES & SKETCHES
MADELINE ISLAND, WISCONSIN
This multidisciplinary workshop is a longtime dream-made-reality for me. I’ll be teaching alongside two brilliant friends — writer-illustrator Hallie Bateman and memoirist Nadine Kenney Johnstone — and together we’ll explore the power of micro-memoir, capturing small, pivotal moments from our lives to make art in words and images. Hosted by Madeline Island School of the Arts, this retreat is for anyone who wants to cultivate a creative practice rooted in everyday life, a sustaining habit of observation, reflection, and documentation. We’ll share tried-and-true approaches to writing and making art from everyday life, as well as skills to help participants build a sustainable, long-term creative practice at home.
OCTOBER 2-9, 2027:
Small Moment, Big Story: WRITING REAL LIFE
JURANÇON, FRANCE
I led a sold-out writing retreat at Clos Mirabel in the spring of 2025, and it was the highlight of my year, a literal waking dream. Join me in 2027, in autumn this time, for another extraordinary week at this 18th-century manor house in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. We’ll spend mornings in class by the wood stove, practicing an approach to memoir and personal essay that employs, as its springboard, life’s everyday objects, places, and habits, using the mundane to reveal and write what matters to us most. In the afternoons, we’ll write, rest, explore, or share work. We’ll enjoy evenings at the table, sharing a four-course meal and local wines. You’ll leave with a handful of fresh drafts and ideas to carry you forward. All skill levels are welcome.
“I've taken writing classes on and off over the years and have rarely experienced the talent in facilitation and teaching that you brought to us. You created a safe supportive space immediately and made everyone, no matter where they were in their writing, feel welcome and encouraged. I also really appreciated your practical tips and showing your own processes; it made the writing process feel attainable, rather than a secret only a lucky few get to unlock.”—B.G.