StoryStudio Chicago

Happy Friday, writers!

Before you head into this beautiful first weekend of autumn, check out these fantastic in-person classes and workshops happening in the next few weeks!

✍️The Character in You with Dionna Griffin-Irons, single session, Sept. 30

✍️ Distraction and Attention: Developing an Intentional Writing Practice with JP Solheim, four sessions, begins Oct. 15

✍️ How Do You Know If Your Writing Is Any Good? with Christina Clancy, single session, Oct. 19

✍️What I Mean to Say: Honesty and Transformation in the First-Person Story with Connor Shiosh*ta Pickett, four sessions, begins Oct. 27

Grab your spot in one (or several) of these classes now! Hit the link in the first comment for the full list and to register.

Choose your six-month writing workshop!

We have two amazing programs coming up, both on Zoom and both designed for writers working on book-length projects. Stay motivated and accountable, get feedback on your work, work with an expert instructor, and so much more!

The two upcoming workshops are:

✍️ Plan and Build Your Novel with Blair Hurley begins October 8
✍️ Intensive Coaching Cohort with Julia Fine begins December 1

See the graphic for the basic pros and benefits of each program. But you can read lots more about each on each program's page on our site.

Both of these programs just require registration (no application). So register now!

Plan and Build: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/classes/plan-and-build-your-novel-with-blair-hurley-2026-online/

ICC: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/advanced-writing-programs-at-storystudio-chicago/intensive-coaching-cohorts-at-storystudio-chicago/

Revision is the spice of life! Wait....that's not right.

VARIETY is the spice of life. Yes, that's it! But wait....what if: Variety OF revision is the spice of life. 🤩

One Piece, Four Ways: Radical Revision with Rob Macaisa Colgate, a four-session in-person class beginning Oct. 5, will give writers guided radical revision prompts for their rewrites—such as rewriting the piece from memory, rewriting without using any of the same nouns, or rewriting from a new character’s perspective.

Register now! https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/classes/one-piece-four-ways-radical-revision-with-rob-macaisa-colgate/

Writers! Join award-winning and multi-genre writer Paul Lisicky for The Sentence Alive: Four Lessons on Memoir Through Sound, Body, and Form, an online workshop beginning Oct. 14.

In four weekly craft-centered classes, writers will explore the deep architecture of memoir at the level of the sentence and the scene.

Lectures for this open-enrollment class are delivered live on Zoom, but also recorded, so when you register, if you miss a class, you can watch later on your own time.

Don't miss this one -- register now!

The Sentence Alive: Four Lessons on Memoir Through Sound, Body, and Form with Paul Lisicky - StoryStudio Chicago In this four-week craft-centered seminar, multi-genre writer Paul Lisicky invites participants to explore the deep architecture of memoir at the level of the sentence and the scene.

Fall term has not one, but two chances for you to take our signature Creative Writing Essentials class!

✍️ Online with Bess Winter Kosinec begins October 13
✍️ In Person with Kathryn Kruse begins October 21

Both classes are eight session. And both will let writers explore elements that live at the heart of fiction, non-fiction and poetry!

Both of these classes WILL fill up, so claim your spot now. (Don't forget to take 10 percent off these classes with our Last Days of Summer Discount Code: AUTUMN10)

Register for these classes here: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/

Fall means it's time to bust out those cozy sweaters, grab a pumpkin spice muffin, chaperone your kid's Homecoming dance, get your Halloween costume ready, and write write write!

To celebrate the beginning of autumn, we're holding a Last Days of Summer Discount. Until 11:59 pm CT next Monday (9/21), take 10% off all creative writing classes and workshops in our fall catalog with discount code AUTUMN10.

Choose from more than 30 classes starting next Wed., Sept. 23 with Suzanne Roberts's Nature Writing generative workshop.

View all the options here: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/

Our fall-term Pie & Poetry workshop with Teresa Dzieglewicz is coming up on October 1 at the studio.

Trying to find your way back to the page? Have a poem draft you’d like a new set of eyes on, whether it’s a few years old or you wrote it on yesterday’s commute? Want to meet other poets eager to learn and build community? Are you craving pie? Then Pie & Poetry is the class for you!

This great workshop and hang-out is only $10!

Claim your spot now: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/classes/pie-and-poetry-with-teresa-dzieglewicz/

We are beyond excited to have multi-genre writer Paul Lisicky on board to teach our next online open-enrollment class: The Sentence Alive: Four Lessons on Memoir Through Sound, Body, and Form. This four-session class begins October 14.

Paul is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell (one of NPR's Books We Love of 2025), Later: My Life at the Edge of the World (one of NPR's Books We Love of 2020), as well as The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy.

Here's a little more about Paul's class: Memoir lives not only in what we remember, but in how we remember—through the acoustics of language, the cadence of the body, and the structure of experience. In this four-week craft-centered seminar, Paul invites participants to explore the deep architecture of memoir at the level of the sentence and the scene. Designed for writers who want to bring more presence, vitality, and distinctiveness to their prose, this course emphasizes language as an ongoing act of seeking, arrival, and return.

Lectures for this class will be delivered live on Zoom, but also recorded. So when you register, if you miss one, you can watch on your own time.

Register for this fantastic opportunity now: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/classes/the-sentence-alive-four-lessons-on-memoir-through-sound-body-and-form-with-paul-lisicky/