We’re adept at narrativizing our lives. Even the dull and dreadful become fodder for a good story. But when faced with a blank page, too often our skill and joy abandon us. In this generative workshop, we’ll transform our rich experience as veteran storytellers into the key that unlocks our voices and our narratives. Whether you’re writing for yourself, your loved ones, or for publication, the goal of this class is to translate your stories to the page, to mine your memories for sensual details, and to find new meanings in the stories you keep telling.

About the teacher:

Jessica Alexander has taught creative writing workshops at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall College, Porchlight Literary Arts Center, The Fairweather Project, and The Iowa Summer Writing Festival, among other places. Her novella, None of This Is an Invitation (co-written with Katie Jean Shinkle) was published by Astrophil Press in summer 2023. Her story collection, Dear Enemy, was the winning manuscript in the 2016 Subito Prose Contest. Her collaborative memoir (co-written with Vi Khi Nao) That Woman Could Be You came out with BlazeVox in April 2022. Her novel, Agnes, We’re Not Murderers is forthcoming from Clash Books in 2026.