Summer Writers’ Circle

12 Wednesdays | June 4 - August 20 | 7-8:30pm ET

Online, Zoom

Sliding Scale: $360 | $270 | $180

REGISTRATION EXTENDED TO JUNE 2

This is a drop-in gentle-accountability group for creative writers who are struggling to write in isolation, whether that is due to writer’s block or a busy schedule. Each week, we will begin by considering an optional writing prompt and sharing our individual intentions before embarking on a 60-minute writing session. There will be an opportunity toward the end of the session to build community in small groups during which writers are encouraged to share excerpts from their work, exchange book recommendations, and ask for/offer (solicited) writing advice.

This group is suitable for creative writers at any experience level and working in any creative genre, including multimedia creatives whose art practice includes writing. Please note that this group does not include workshop feedback and is instead generative by nature. Writers need not attend every session in order to participate.

If you are primarily looking for detailed feedback on your work, you can learn more about my writing coaching practice here.

On the Rag: Writing about Menstruation

Saturday, June 21 | 2-5pm ET

Online, Zoom

Sliding Scale: $125 | $100 | $75

Register by Thurs, June 19, 11:59pm

In response to the sheer lack of literary spaces that support conversations about menstruation writing, this generative workshop invites writers of all genders and genres to come explore their relationship to menstruation in community.

Taught by a queer, trauma-informed teaching artist living with premenstrual dysphoric disorder, this workshop will begin with consideration for our self-care and community-care needs in the Zoom room. We will then read and discuss poems and essays (including work by Franny Choi) that examine menstruation from multiple lenses--queer, (dis)abled, BIPOC--before responding to prompts that invite us to reflect, without romanticization, on our first menses, last menses, and the ones that have come--or not come--in between.

In addition to writing about menstruation, there also will be time and space for us to reflect on how our menstruation experiences have impacted our creative processes (and what shifts might help us going forward).

Come ready to write! Writers of all experience levels are welcome, and writers will leave with drafts of their own work.

Teaching Artist Summer Camp: Cultivating a Teaching Philosophy

6 Thursdays | July 10 - August 14 | 6-9pm ET

Online, Zoom

Sliding Scale: $360 | $270 | $180

Register by Thurs, July 3, 11:59pm ET

What’s your teaching philosophy? In this workshop we will read and discuss excerpts from texts such as Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, Critical Response Process by Liz Lerman, and others. Each week will be centered on reflecting on our own evolving teaching philosophies and integrating new ideas into our own teaching practices. Participants will leave with a teaching philosophy statement, revised syllabus and lesson plans, and additional resources.

This workshop is open to teaching artists of all disciplines. We have so much to learn from each other!

Fund Your Writing: Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants

Tuesday, July 15 | 6-7:30pm

Chill Subs | Online

$50 (Free for members of Chill Subs, Sub Club, and/or Forever Workshop)

What’s your teaching philosophy? In this workshop we will read and discuss excerpts from texts such as Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, Critical Response Process by Liz Lerman, and others. Each week will be centered on reflecting on our own evolving teaching philosophies and integrating new ideas into our own teaching practices. Participants will leave with a teaching philosophy statement, revised syllabus and lesson plans, and additional resources.

This workshop is open to teaching artists of all disciplines. We have so much to learn from each other!

Past Readings & Events

“Creating and Sustaining a Satisfying Writing Life.” WriteAngles Conference. Northampton, MA (2024).

Literary Reading & Open Mic for Palestine/UNRWA. Bookends, Florence, MA (2024).

Conversation with Ani Gjika. Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA (2024).

“Women, Life, Freedom: Iranian Writers Reading & in Conversation.” RAWIFest+Mizna 2023. Minneapolis, MN (2023).

RAWIFest+Mizna 2023 Reading. Minneapolis (2023).

The Elemental Salon. Florence, MA (2023).

The Thirsty Lab Reading. Zoom (2023).

2022 Edith Wharton / Straw Dog Writers-in-Residence Celebration. Lenox, MA (2022). 

AGNI Launch of Issue 95. Goethe-Institut Boston. Boston, MA (2022).

QTWOC + QPOC Winnipeg. Zoom (2022).

Radius of Arab American Writers Festival (RAWIFest). Zoom (2021).

Poetry Reading with Fatemeh Shams. Blacksburg, VA (2019).

Contemporary Iranian-American Creative Nonfiction. University of Maryland Summer Language Institute Graduate Education Panel (2018).

Past Workshops

Workshops: Introduction to Creative Writing (12-week class), Introduction to Creative Nonfiction (12-week class)

Generative Writing Classes: Jumpstart Your Writing: Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction (6-week class); Introduction to Poetry (6-week class), Space & Time for BIPOC Writers (12-week class), Poet Tea: Making & Writing about Tea (3-hour class), Eat the Apple: Writing Sensual Experiences (3-hour class), Beloved: How to Write a Love Letter (3-hour class)

Arts Business Classes: Submitting to Literary Markets & Magazines (3-hour class), Artist Residencies 101 (2-hour class), Fund Your Writing: Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants (3-hour class); MFA Application Crash Course (3-hour class), Writing the MFA Application (4-week Course) Cultivating Sustainable Writing Practices (3-hour class); Finding Your Literary Community (3-hour class)