Zinnia Smith

We are both imperfect writers and imperfect people, and sometimes the one disrupts the other or vice versa. Hesitation, perfectionism, responsibility are all as much a part of the writing process as the more compelling, imaginative components that inspire us to practice the art of writing. This class aims to loosen the serious constraints around our writing practice by encouraging play, inspiration, and an opening up of our writing intuition.

In this three-hour seminar, we’ll start by discussing reflections on intuitive creativity from Rick Rubin, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde. Together we’ll read flash and poetry examples of varying styles and approaches to reconnect to the self that lives for the beauty of writing. The second half of class offers writing time much like an art studio practice with a focus on production (writing prompts to assist). By creating this writing space, we will learn to better trust our writing self.

Come with an open mind and be ready to write in a lively, conversational, generative space.

A ghost is an amorphous thing, but a haunted house is a construction. The heavy urns, the veranda, the patterned carpet, the warm fireplace, the blue room, the library’s iron stairs: all make Eleanor Vance feel “like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster” in Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

How do we make wicked houses come alive in prose? How do we guarantee their physical construction to envelop the reader’s mind? In this 4-week class, we will grasp the craft of building a haunted house in prose and leave with a haunted short story draft.

The first few weeks, we will read examples of “classic” haunted house stories, including Shirley Jackson and Edith Wharton, as well as, contemporary adaptions of a haunted house with Jamil Jan Kochai and Carmen Maria Machado. A haunted house would be nothing without its atmosphere, so we’ll also consider Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space and how perspective or mood influences a house. During class time, we will discuss the details of these haunted constructions, study how they manipulate mood, and complete writing prompts to commence building our own haunted house stories. The final class will be dedicated to sharing and workshopping our stories in a supportive (and uncanny, frightful, spooky) environment.

This is a supportive and applicable class for anyone writing the mood of an unhappy or evil domestic space. Prose writers of all genres welcome.

Pimples, sex, ooze, pain, a dead nail, crooked toes, faulty organs, sweat glands. The physical body expresses its messiness despite our higher-self. But still, sometimes our characters or self-representation can come across formless. Maybe even dishonest, upholding the unrealistic beauty and ability standards of ableism.

This 90-minute, free seminar aims to bring “body honesty” to our prose. As a class, we’ll read honest body examples from Carmen Maria Machado and Jorge Luis Borges, both speaking to their body experience. Together, we will brainstorm embodied terminology that we can apply to our writing, and proceed to write our own body depictions embracing the mess and grotesque.

You can come to class seeking inspiration, ready to write from personal experience, or with a character in need of “physical” development. Be ready to acknowledge your own body and comfortable with an honest and celebratory mindset for disability with an instructor living with disability. Writers of any genre welcome.

The color blue is a treasure. A soothing balm. A camouflage to blend your city into the sky (Chefchaouen, Morocco). Klein blue. Jardin Majorelle. La Casa Azul. A bone deep feeling.

Celebrating the infinity of blue, this class will inspire you to write your own expression of the color. In this seminar, we will consider a number of blue expressions and use them as a series of writing prompts. Of course, we’ll look at Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, but also, poems, setting descriptions, paintings, to inspire the blue side of our minds into writing. A portable record player (blue) will be taken out to play records like Nina Simone’s Pastel Blues, Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, Joni Mitchell's Blue. Through these inspirational and generative writing prompts, you’ll walk away with the starts to many different odes and moods to be applied to your own stories. Open to all genres, and generative focused.

Students are asked to bring necessary writing materials, and optionally, a small blue treasure of their choice. This blue object should be easy to carry into class and set on the table.

Lovers and dreamers alike: come write in the space of Dearly Studio, candle lit, under the disco balls of Bow Market, for an evening of easy-going drinks and love poetry. No sodden sonnets here. Never touched a pen in your life? Welcome! You still have words to speak to woo your friends and lovers. It’s about time you write them down.

I’ll guide you through new and exciting verses of intimate expression, and encourage you along the way as you write poetry to be shared with partners or dear friends. (Romance can be platonic, after all.) Write a love poem to yourself, Samantha Jones. Draft those wedding vows. Find inspiration. The first half of this 2-hour session will be an introduction to contemporary love poetry, so if you’ve always been curious “what’s poetry about anyhow?” now’s your chance to f*ck around and find out. We’ll then dive into writing prompts. Music will be played, drinks can be purchased at the Dearly Studio bar. Nobody will make you read anything aloud. You’ll leave with a poem draft in your pocket and floating on a pink cloud of romantic inspiration.

This is a small workshop, so space will be limited. Please bring a pen and journal.

So you’ve spent the winter listening to your heart. What are the big feelings still lingering from last year? It’s time to make space for what’s ahead in this writing workshop + tarot reading only at Dearly Studio.

Inspired by the power of the tarot and the written word, this generative workshop will help you move what’s still inside you that’s so 2023. You might have feelings that gotta pack up and go—You might have feelings that need to be celebrated, revolutionized, memorialized, added to the collective archive! It doesn’t matter if you’ve been besties with the Nine of Swords or the Ten of Cups. Whatever remains, write it out. You will get the chance to pull a hand-written prompt card, provided by your writing instructor Zinnia, to help you connect to what lives inside: the future, the past, dreams, anxieties, miraculous, and magical. We’ll translate it to the page and alchemize what’s in your heart.