First Look: Check Out Our New Summer 2025 Narratively Academy Classes!
Ready to write this summer? We have new sessions of several of our most popular sold-out classes—plus our very first screenwriting class!—and more.
Summer is the season for stepping back from that day job (at least a little!) and finding the time to focus on you. For writers, that means carving out the time and space to finally give our creative projects the attention they deserve. We’ve designed our Narratively Academy summer class schedule with that in mind. And since we know summer is also for giving yourself a break, all of our upcoming summer classes are either short (one to three sessions) and/or designed so you can attend asynchronously.
Sign up this week (by Sunday, June 15) and take 20% off any one of these classes by using the code EARLYSUMMER at checkout.
Read on for everything we have on tap!
But before we get to the brand-new classes, just a quick reminder that we have Abeer Hoque back teaching The Insider’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies this coming weekend, June 14 and June 21. There are just two seats left in this small class, so if you want in, grab yours now!
We all know that one of the trickiest things to write about honestly is family — especially parents. Talk about navigating emotional minefields! That’s why we’re so pleased to have Ladane Nasseri, a MacDowell fellow who has published everywhere from The New York Times to McSweeney’s, teaching a two-hour seminar later this month, The Way They Were: Writing About Parents and Formative Relationships.
If you’re working on a memoir or a personal essay that you want to infuse with original reporting and research, don’t miss this class. Kristina Gaddy — acclaimed author, essayist and editor at the literary journal true — is leading a special two-part craft-focused seminar in July called Reporting the Personal Essay. Students really loved the first edition of this class last year, and Kristina has now expanded it to include a second day where you can discuss your own works-in-progress.
This summer, just 10 writers will have the chance to work one-one-one with Narratively executive editor Jesse Sposato. Jesse edits almost all of the memoir pieces that are published on Narratively, and this is the very first time she’s teaching Summer Memoir Mentorship: Perfecting the Personal Essay. If you have a draft of a personal essay and you’re ready for professional feedback, Jesse will review and critique your story, hop on a one-on-one call to discuss edits with you, then review your revision and help you get it all polished up and ready to submit to publications.
We could not be more excited about this next class which, honestly, everyone on our team wants to take ourselves! If you’re a journalist, essayist or other writer who has always wanted to try your hand at a screenplay, this summer is your chance to commit. Bill Gullo is a very accomplished Hollywood screenwriter and longtime educator. In this fun, fast-paced summer class, he’ll show you how to write a “vomit draft” of a screenplay in six weeks. What’s a vomit draft? It’s just what it sounds like: fast and disgusting, but productive. Plus you’ll feel better after you’re done! Any professional screenwriter will tell you about the importance of getting the first draft finished so you can step back and see what’s working and what’s not. Throughout these six weeks, Bill will walk writers through all the details of how to get that full first draft finished in a way that allows you to move forward with intention.
One of our perennially popular classes, Katey Schultz’s The Fine Art of Deep Revision explores how revising your own writing can be efficient, productive and even fun — once you identify the concrete techniques that work best for you. Our three previous sessions of this class all sold out quickly, so grab a seat now if you want to get to work on revising your writing projects this August.
Writing about trauma can be more than catharsis. It can offer an opening, create awareness and begin necessary conversations. This three-part workshop-based class, Untangling the Traumatic Narrative: Using Words to Access Our Wounds, will offer practical and empowering exploration into the process of writing about trauma. Instructor Rebecca Evans, who has taught trauma writing to a wide variety of students in a range of settings, will share from her own extensive experience confronting the fear and vulnerability that surfaces while untangling difficult narratives on the page.
Finally, this August we’re very lucky to have another session of Kavita Das’s sold-out spring class seminar, How to Write About Social Issues in Unprecedented Times. A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, CNN and many other publications, Kavita also authored the book Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues. Basically, she’s *the* expert on how to craft this type of writing.
Questions about any of these classes? Drop us a line: academy@narratively.com
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