No matter your writing experience, this course is a chance to explore new possibilities. We will be looking at essays, short stories, memoirs and novels from a wide variety of writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Jo Ann Beard, James Baldwin, Alexander Hemon, Lydia Davis and more. How does a writer know which genre to choose? How do you? We’ll spend time talking about whatever may have inhibited your voice in the past and how to stay true to your vision. There will be plenty of exercises to generate new writing as well as time devoted to receiving supportive, critical feedback. By the end of the course, you should have an expanded range for your voice and the desire to keep writing.  

Monica Wesolowska is the author of the memoir, Holding Silvan: A Brief Life, which was named a "Best Book of 2013" by The Boston Globe and Library Journal. Her stories and essays have appeared in many other venues including The New York Times, The Carolina Quarterly, and Best New American Voices. She’s a graduate of Reed College and a former fellow at the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown. A native of Berkeley, she’s been a freelance editor as well as an instructor of writing at UC Berkeley Extension and around the Bay Area for over a decade.

More about Monica: www.monicawesolowska.com