Classes and workshops for the community
Wherever you are, we're here to meet you
The Piper Writers Studio (PWS) offers creative writing classes, workshops, and other educational opportunities for writers of all backgrounds, genres, and levels of experience.
Our classes are intended for and open to the public. You do not need to be an ASU student to attend. Class sizes are kept small—usually between 8 and 16 students—in order to maximize the amount of instruction and to develop closer relationships between students, faculty, and the class as a whole. Individual classes range from single afternoons to multiple weeks. Classes are taught by local and visiting faculty and are offered at various times throughout the year. While individual costs vary depending upon the content and duration of the course, classes usually cost between $39-$250, with a number of discounts available for various sectors of the community.
Spring workshops open!
Wednesday | January 22, 2025 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm via Zoom
Building Your Platform: Promoting Yourself as a Writer
Virtual with Wendy J. Fox
Emerging writers are often told that they need a "platform" by publishers and agents without a concrete definition of what one is, or how to find it. Between social media, personal websites, media properties, and other digital channels, it can be difficult to know where to start. In this workshop, we'll demystify the platform and get you started building your own. Participants will come away confident in the creation, cultivation, and control of a highly-marketable authorial brand and platform.
In this class you'll receive:
- A deep understanding of what a "platform" is and its importance to writers
- Practical ways to get started building your own platform
- Techniques for overcoming feelings of doubt surrounding self-promotion
Wendy J. Fox is the author of four books of fiction, including What If We Were Somewhere Else (SFWP, 2021), which won the Colorado Book Award and received a star of excellence in the genre of short-stories from Booklist. Her 2019 novel, If the Ice Had Held, was a top pick in audio by LitHub. She has written for many national publications including Self, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and Ms. She authors a quarterly column in Electric Literature which focuses on independent books. She is a former SVP of marketing for a green tech firm and lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
Four Thursdays | February 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2025 @ 5:30 - 7:30 pm via Zoom
The Lost Letters: An Epistolary Poetry Workshop
Virtual with Thea Matthews
In this dynamic, generative workshop, we will look at epistolary poetry as a distinct form to uncover and write truth-telling letters to ourselves, to others, and to our communities. From the Latin epistula for "letter," epistolary poems, also known as epistles, are poems of direct address to a person, a people, a city, or even a nation. With our time together, we will examine epistle examples and investigate craft elements for writing epistolary poetry. We will also participate in generative writing and revising sessions in response to prompts and based on our discussions on the intimacy of letter writing through poetry. Whether it be through persona, or an autobiographical note, writing epistolary poetry can serve as a clever mode to write about love, survival, resiliency, and unearth topics, smash stigma, or reveal secrets. If you just wrote your first poem or have been writing poetry for years, this workshop is for you. Explore and expand the possibilities of your craft as a poet!
By the end of the workshop, you will come away with a small poetry portfolio of epistles with a wide range of topics and perspectives.
In this class you'll receive:
- Gain knowledge in writing epistles (a poem or other literary work in the form of a letter or series of letters)
- Learn techniques for merging different poetic forms
- Draft new poems and epistles with peer and instructor feedback
Thea Matthews is a poet of African and Indigenous Mexican descent originally from San Francisco. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a BA in sociology from UC Berkeley. She is the author of GRIME (City Lights, 2025). Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, The Common, Obsidian Lit & Arts in the African Diaspora, Massachusetts Review, Alta Journal, On the Seawall, The New Republic, and others. She was nominated for Best New Poets in 2022 and Best of the Net in 2021. Her first book Unearth [The Flowers] was published by Red Light Lit Press and was listed under Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Poetry of 2020. She teaches creative writing and is an editor. In the fall and early winter of 2023, Thea Matthews was a poet-in-residence for the Museum of African Diaspora and a programming curator for the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Four Tuesdays | March 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2025 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm @ the Piper House
Write the Memoir You're Afraid to Write
In person with Patricia L. Brooks
In an encouraging and insightful presentation, Patricia L. Brooks will help you capture the essence of your untold story. She will share with you how to produce a memoir to your own satisfaction, face your fears, and conquer your story's emotional beats. With techniques from writing her three daring memoirs, she will help you understand the journey to writing yours. Within this engaging and informative format, Patricia will inspire you to take the necessary steps to bring your work to fruition.
Deliverables list for class:
- Explore various techniques for structuring your memoir
- Learn how to use "mind mapping" to bring your story to life
- Get feedback from a professional author on your writing
Patricia L. Brooks, MAOM, published three memoirs: Sick as My Secrets, Three Husbands and a Thousand Boyfriends, and Gifts of Sisterhood - Journey from Grief to Gratitude. She is currently working on a non-fiction book about writing memoirs, Write the Memoir You're Afraid to Write, to be released in November 2024. Patricia is president of both Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC, and the phenomenally successful Scottsdale Society of Women Writers. She founded both in 2005. Brooks is affiliated with Arizona State University, teaching memoir writing for the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. Patricia lives in Old Town Scottsdale with her husband, author Earl L. Goldmann.
Four Wednesdays | March 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2025 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm via Zoom
Poetry of Grief and Healing
Virtual with Jodie Hollander
For centuries, creating art, and writing poetry in particular, has served as a form of healing for hurt, pain, and grief. In this workshop, we'll discuss examples of celebrated poems that tackle these difficult topics and study effective techniques for channeling our pain into poetry. Then, through a series of writing prompts, we'll delve into our own experiences and turn them into powerful, effective poems. This workshop is for anyone who is interested in the incredible transformative power of poetry to heal our wounds.
In this class, you'll receive:
- Discover strategies for enhancing your poetry sonically
- Learn new poetic techniques
- Complete poem drafts and receive instructor and peer feedback on your work
Jodie Hollander's work has appeared in journals such as The Poetry Review, Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, The Harvard Review, Poetry, PN Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry London, The Hudson Review, The Dark Horse, The New Criterion, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The Best Australian Poems of 2011, and The Best Australian Poems of 2015. Her debut full-length collection, My Dark Horses, was published with Liverpool University Press and Oxford University Press. Her second collection, Nocturne, was also published with Liverpool and Oxford University Press in 2023 and was longlisted for the Laurel Prize in nature writing. Hollander is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa. She is also the originator of Poetry in the Parks, in conjunction with several National Parks and Monuments in the U.S. She currently lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Three Wednesdays | April 2, 9, and 15, 2025 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm via Zoom
The Only Way Out is Through: The Science and Art of Writing the Traumatic
Virtual with Tamara MC
In this trauma-informed workshop, writers will explore methods for writing about traumatic experiences while maintaining emotional safety and developing stronger narrative techniques. Drawing from leading trauma experts and contemporary memoirists, we'll examine how trauma affects memory, narrative structure, and emotional processing through the lens of both psychology and literature. We'll study Bessel van der Kolk's groundbreaking research alongside powerful memoirs like Tara Westover's "Educated," Carmen Maria Machado's "In the Dream House," and Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" to understand how writers successfully navigate challenging personal material. Through guided exercises, craft discussion, and attention to emotional safety, participants will develop tools for establishing boundaries in their writing practice and shaping their experiences into compelling narratives.
Writers will leave with practical strategies for continuing their writing practice, enhanced understanding of trauma's impact on storytelling, and techniques for managing challenging material while maintaining their wellbeing. This workshop creates a supportive environment for writers at any stage of processing their experiences through words. This course is designed for nonfiction writers who want to explore personal narrative through a trauma-informed lens. Whether you're working on a memoir, personal essays, or simply exploring your experiences through writing, you'll gain concrete tools for approaching challenging material with confidence.
In this class, you'll receive:
- Create a self-care writing ritual guide for managing difficult material
- Build a personal emotional boundaries toolkit
- Draft a writing safety strategies plan
Dr. Tamara MC combines her expertise in Applied Linguistics with her lived experience as a child bride, cult survivor, and human trafficking survivor to advocate for girls and women worldwide. Her work exploring trauma, identity, and survival has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She attended Columbia University's MFA program and has been honored with fellowships at prestigious writing programs including Bread Loaf, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Sewanee, Ragdale, Cave Canem, and VONA. Her memoir, CHILD BRIDE, chronicles her experience of being married at age twelve within an American Sufi cult.
Learn more about the Piper Writers Studio
About the Studio
At the Piper Writers Studio, we believe in the power of your words. We believe in your artistic momentum and in how education can transform dreams into realities. We encourage professional development in all areas of creative writing and literary professions for beginning writers to intermediate writers to seasoned authors to those who don’t know they are writers yet. PWS welcomes all levels of learners and seeks to meet you where you are at on your creative journey. We offer high-quality educational experiences and multi-genre learning opportunities in a diverse array of creative writing genres as well as multiple classes on the business of writing. Our faculty are all published writers and skilled teachers of writing.
We provide a listening ear and an open door and are honored to be the place where artists go to further their skills and build their imaginations. We strive to foster authentic creativity and craft, one writer at a time.
Discounts
As part of our continuing efforts to increase access to creative writing education across diverse communities, the Piper Center offers a number of discounts for students, veterans, ASU affiliates, and senior citizens, as well as individuals experiencing economic challenges.
Generally speaking, discounts are between 10% and 15% off each class, and are claimed by entering an ID number or contacting the Piper Center at pipercenter.info@asu.edu to receive a discount code.
Please note: Discounts are not available for every class. Only one discount code can be used for each class. However, there is no limit to the number of classes for which the discount can be used. The Piper Center reserves the right to ask for further verification of all discounts upon request.
Accessibility
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is committed to ensuring that all individuals have fair and equal access to Piper Center events and programs.
All venues are accessible to individuals with mobility challenges, hearing loss, or other forms of disability.
ASL interpreting services, printed versions of presentations, large print handouts, translations, and alternative forms of materials for classes, workshops, or other programs are available with two to three weeks advance notice (upon request).
To request materials or contact the Center with any other accessibility questions or concerns, call the Center directly at 480.965.6018 or send us an email at pipercenter.info@asu.edu.
Teach with us
Teach with Piper
Educating and inspiring our writing community
Interested in teaching a class or workshop? Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is now accepting proposals for creative writing classes and workshops through the Piper Writers Studio (PWS).
Before you begin your application, be sure to have the following ready (as you won't be able to save and return to your application):
- A brief bio (200 words or less)
- Proposed course title
- Proposed course description (200 words or less)
We will NOT ask you for a CV, writers resume, or list of your publications. Instead we will ask you to provide a short personal statement letting us know why you think you're a good fit to teach with us including what your involvement may currently be in our literary community.
We recognize that filling out an application like this can feel intimidating, especially if you're new to processes like this. To help, we will offer some advice along the way. You can also check out our FAQs or our PWS Instructor Informational Guide.
For other opportunities with Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, you can apply for a Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference Teaching Fellowship. For more information about course proposals, you can view past classes or contact coodinator for educational programs, shawki31@asu.edu
Contact
Can't find an answer to your question? Email us!
Can't find an answer to your question? Email our coordinator for educational programs, shawki31@asu.edu or send a general query to pipercenter.info@asu.edu.
Invest in us
With your support, Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is able to host free educational opportunities. Give writers from Arizona and the Southwest access to classes and workshops from expert faculty. Help writers of all levels receive the knowledge, training and assistance necessary for their personal, professional and artistic development. Your gifts also ensure excellent free and fair-cost literary programming across our diverse communities. Become an essential part of our community story with your gift to Piper today.
FAQ
The entire registration process can be completed online by following the links above. You will receive a confirmation email once you are registered for the workshop. Registration closes for all workshops at the start of the first session.
Workshops range from $50 to $250.
ASU Students, OLLI Members, and Mirabella residents are eligible for registration discounts of anywhere from 25% to 50% off. Keep an eye out for coupon codes in our monthly newsletter as well. Subscribe here.
All PWS workshops are open to the public!
ASU credit is not awarded for PWS workshops. For-credit writing classes are taught through the ASU Department of English.
Yes, you can. For every 10 instructional hours, you can receive 1 CEU credit. CEU credits require a $30 registration fee in addition to PWS registration costs. Once you’ve signed up for a course, please fill out the CEU Professional Development Form. When you have completed the course, you will receive a certificate via snail-mail confirming your credit hours.
Workshops meet at the Piper Writers House at ASU, local bookstores, and virtually through Zoom.
Class lengths vary. Many of our evening classes meet for 1-2 hours a week. Saturday classes tend to meet between 3-5 hours, allowing participants to explore a topic in depth. Four-week classes are scheduled for two hours each week, on a single night. One-day courses meet for five hours on a Saturday and explore a topic in depth.
Workshops are updated before each new semester. If you would like to receive notices when new workshops are scheduled, please subscribe to our newsletter.
The Piper Center offers registration fee refunds up to 72 hours before the workshop date. A $5 processing fee will be deducted from the refund. We cannot offer refunds within the 72-hour window before the workshop date. Please email Sasha Hawkins, the Piper Center’s Education Coordinator, at shawki31@asu.edu for more information.