The universe and the universal: writing about big and small things

With Amanda Brady Ford

Saturday, April 11, 10 am-12 PM PsT

Understanding the mechanics of the world around us — the trees, the molecules, the stars and the galaxies — can be a powerful way to inspire all forms of writing: poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and of course science fiction. In this two-hour seminar, writer and science teacher Dr. Amanda Ford, former staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, will share insights from the worlds of astronomy and literature. 

Come learn about the Big Bang, massive supernovae, galaxy evolution, why the sky is blue, why trees (on this planet!) are green, and how each of us carries remnants of stars in the very cells of our bodies. We’ll also study the writing styles of Kate Folk, Ursula K. LeGuin, N.K. Jemisin and more, as well as view some gorgeous science and space images. If you’re looking to see the world (and perhaps your writing) in a new, expanded way, this could be the right class for you!

Amanda Ford is a scientist, writer, and teacher living in Northern California. She holds a doctorate in astronomy; her work on galaxy evolution has appeared in Science, the Astrophysical Journal, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Now a data scientist, Amanda was the tech lead for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Innovation, building data systems that improved homelessness response and helped move people into stable housing. 

Amanda started creative writing again in 2021, partly to revive parts of herself lost during a lengthy battle with severe Lyme disease. She was a student at the Iowa Summer Writer’s Workshop in 2025, and is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of San Francisco. She has been published in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine and Crossroads. She teaches math, data science, and machine learning at UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco.

We Are Each Other’s Harvest: On Literary Citizenship

With Georgina Marie Guardado

SUNDAY, April 19, 10 am-12 PM PST

What is it to be a literary citizen today? How do we participate and give back to our writing communities while prioritizing self-preservation? In this seminar, we will practice community cultivation as individuals and as a collective by engaging in conversation, writing prompts, and more. We’ll look to writers in history who have served as positive examples of literary citizens. An interactive presentation will be offered followed by a group discussion, generative writing sessions with optional sharing, and a closing Q&A. 

Georgina Marie Guardado (Latinx, Indigenous, she/her) is the Poet Laureate Emerita of Lake County, CA for 2020-2024, and a Poets Laureate Fellow with The Academy of American Poets. She is the Literacy Program Coordinator for the Lake County Library and President of the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference. She has received support from The Academy of American Poets, Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Hugo House, and SF Writing Salon. Her work has appeared in Poets.org, Gulf Coast Journal, Yellow Medicine Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, and more. She earned her BA in Liberal Studies, Literature and Creative Writing from Antioch University, and her MFA from the Pacific University MFA in Writing Program where she was a scholar of the Kwame Dawes Mapmakers and Master of Fine Arts Merit endowments. She lives in northern California.

Poetry Calisthenics : Exercises to Stretch and Strengthen Our Writing Craft

With Michelle Peñaloza

Saturday, May 9, 10 am-12 PM PST

Together with generosity and intentional ease, we will engage in reading and writing that builds on elements of poetic craft. We will take a look at poems and excerpts of poems together and then try out generative exercises to experiment our writing technique, specifically playing with image, figurative language, sound, and syntax. Much like a circuit, we will go from one poem and writing exercise to the next with time available for folks to share (or not share, no pressure!) the writing generated by these experiments and exercises. Come with a laptop or notebook, ready to take a deep breath, ready to have fun, and ready to try things out and see what happens!

Michelle Peñaloza is the author of All The Words I Can Remember Are Poems, winner of the 2024 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award (Persea Books, forthcoming in 2025) and the James Laughlin Award, which is awarded by The Academy of American Poets to recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year. She is also the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019), and two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). Michelle has received support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Upstate California Creative Corps, Loghaven, PAWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists), and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. You can find her work at The Seventh Wave, Poetry, Honey Literary, Bellingham Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI, raised in Nashville, TN, and now lives in Covelo, CA. 

Polish Those Letters: Artist Statements, Cover Letters, Statements of Purpose

With Ploi Pirapokin

Saturday, June 13, 10 am-12 PM PST

You've completed 90% of the hard work of revising and editing your manuscript. Congratulations! Now the last thing you need before submitting it is a letter. Whether you're applying to an MFA program, writers conference, or fellowship or residency, to seek representation on your work, to publish, you need to be able to speak about your writing style and artistic intention in an artist statement, a cover letter, or a statement of purpose. Ploi will share strategies from her years of experience from the jurying side on putting together a cohesive application, with time given for you to draft a paragraph of your artist statement and a Q&A.

Ploi Pirapokin sits on the board for Khōréō magazine, WP Now, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Pleiades, Ninth Letter, Gulf Stream Magazine, The Offing and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Kundiman and others. A graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She currently teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension, WritingWorkshops.com, and the University of Hong Kong. Born in Thailand and raised in Hong Kong, she uses speculative fiction to explore postcolonial poetics, and imperialism in Asia.