Writer's Studio

Writer's Studio Workshop

Come study the art of writing in intensive, fun, hands-on workshops with dynamic instructors from Stanford’s writing, literature, and arts programs.  Each week focuses on a specific craft element or process, with opportunity to experiment and practice. You’ll leave with an expanded understanding of what your writing can do.  Designed for students but open to the whole Stanford community, the workshops are held most Mondays from 6:00-7:30pm when classes are in session at Stanford.  Unless otherwise noted, workshops are at the Hume Center, Room 201. 

Spring Quarter 2025 Workshop Schedule

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em: Storytelling That Packs a Punch in 1,500 Words or Less

Monday, April 14 with Rucy Cui

In this workshop, we'll read flash fiction—stories told in 1,500 words or less. Flash fiction can be a powerful way to hone your writing skills by focusing on brevity, clarity, and emotional impact. We'll discuss that age-old adage to "write what you know!" and how to create memorable characters and develop tension quickly within that framework. Drilling down to the level of sentence by sentence, we'll come away with a deeper appreciation for the power of concise storytelling... and, of course, look to the most concise form of storytelling of all for inspiration: a writing exercise guided by the mystical fortune cookie.

Rucy Cui is a 2024-2026 Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction. She grew up in San Jose, CA and has lived and taught in Texas, Wyoming, and the south of France.

Poetry as Artwork

Monday, April 21 with Hua Xi

We often think of poetry as confined to the page. But in fact, visual artists have long worked with text in dynamic and surprising ways. In this workshop, we'll look at poetry and other language-based artworks by visual artists who are incorporating language into physical sculptures, projections, performances and other mediums. For example, we'll look at poetry written for usage within a sculptural sound installation, poetry written to be flown on a flag, poems written to be buried underground and poetry written as part of an interactive activity. Attendees will also have the chance to try designing their own poetry-based artwork, with materials provided. No prior experience is needed and students of all backgrounds are welcome to bring their own interests and knowledge to the workshop.

Hua Xi is a poet and artist. Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic and elsewhere. She is currently a Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford.

The Power of Poetic Framing

Monday, April 28 with D.M. Spratley

When we write a poem, we are also outlining for our readers one way of receiving information. What we choose to show—or leave out—in our work defines the poem’s frame. In this workshop, we will read and analyze a few poems closely, focusing on the framing techniques used in each piece—giving particular focus to what perspectives, emotions, and temporal boundaries the writer chose to include. After discussing how those techniques are used to convey meaning, we will begin to examine and shift our own frames through a series of writing exercises. Students will leave this workshop with a few possible entry points for new work and/or revision. Please bring one pre-existing poem with you to the workshop.

D. M. Spratley is a Wallace Stegner Fellow, Cave Canem Fellow, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, and William C Friday Fellow for Human Relations. She studied comparative literature at Princeton and received her MFA from Hollins University.

"Birds Not Bird Cages": Poems that Fly

Monday, May 5 with Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio

Have you ever read a poem that seemed to transform right in front of you? That you can’t wrap your head around? That seemed to (nearly) take flight? In this class, we’ll be looking at poems that ride on energy and surprise. Guided by the poet Dean Young’s mantra “we are making birds, not birdcages” we will study poems that contain a sense of alchemy– turning words into something alive. Through the technique of the list poem and a close study of tone, we’ll get closer to understanding how poets can pull off such impossible feats. Poets discussed will likely include Diane Seuss, Kenneth Koch, Chelsey Minnis, Heather Christle, June Jordan, and Mark Leidner. A number of prompts will help us bring about our own wild poems.

Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best New Poets, Bennington Review, Hopkins Review, Oxford Poetry, and Poetry Northwest.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

Monday, May 12 with Hassaan Mirza

For long, the human desire to make meaning of what has been lost to time has inspired our storytelling. But how can the act of remembering itself be rendered in our writing? In this class we will examine and experiment with the techniques by which we can craft and modulate retrospection in first-person narratives. We will play with time as a material of story-making: how can we sculpt it, stretch it, collapse it, invert it? Doing so, we will study how and why narrators turn their past selves into their characters.

Hassaan Mirza is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Ploughshares, Joyland, Salamander, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is a Stegner fellow in fiction at Stanford University and a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati.

Storytelling Alchemy: Embodying Imagery, Emotion and Structure to Enchant Live Audiences

Monday, May 19 with Dawn J Fraser

Unlock the magic of storytelling alchemy by transforming written words into captivating live performances. In this interactive training, participants will explore the art of embodying their stories, bringing characters to life, editing based on structural considerations, and evoking vivid imagery that sparks the imagination. We will also discover how to tap into the emotional core of one’s narratives, and how to weave themes and subtext from the page onto stages. Participants will have the opportunity to workshop their stories on their feet, with a keen eye on performance aspects such as pacing, rhythm, and dramatic tension. Join us as we take our words and turn them into unforgettable, memorable and magical live performances!

Dawn J. Fraser is a storyteller, podcaster and nationally acclaimed communications coach based out of San Jose, CA. She’s the Founder/ CEO of Fraser’s Edge, Inc, which provides coaching and consulting services for businesses, thought leaders and creatives to develop their leadership potential through storytelling. Dawn is also a Senior Producer at the Stanford Storytelling Project, a Lead Instructor with The Moth, and was featured among some of the nation’s top change makers at TED@NYC. She loves being a twin, a Trinidadian, and touch-baseable at www.dawnjfraser.com.