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The Attic named Best of Portland!
"It's a quiet, literary oasis in a city full of literary-worthy people and places."
~Willamette Week
Great summer classes begin in June Register now!
Summer Schedule in fiction, creative non-fiction, screenwriting, poetry, & more.
Remember: Classes sometimes fill up fast, so it's always best to register early. Want to get notified about all of our upcoming classes & events, please join our e-mail mailing list.
The Attic RoomsNeed a room of your own? Affordable writing studios are now available.
Start writing now! One space is currently available.
Q & A about the Attic Rooms
What kind of space is it?
The space is a large shared room with two clean, Swedish tables, one for each writer. It's ideal for a writer looking for a private place to write. The studio & desk are yours for the period in which you're writing at the Attic, a space where you can safely leave your books, papers, & writing tools.
How often can I use the studio?
Your studio space is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When there is no Attic class in session in the workshop room, you can use the workshop room for a comfortable place to read or to have meetings.
Can I hook up to the Internet?
Your studio space includes free wireless.
Is the room bright?
Yes. The rooms have lots of sunlight.
How does the rental work?
You rent the space for a fixed monthly period of time, depending on the commitment that's best suited to your writing project or needs.
What are different monthly arrangements & rentals?
Project Studio: 1-month commitment, $135/month
Daily Studio: 3-month commitment, $120/month
Writer's Studio: 6-month commitment, $105/month
What's the experience like?
Like this: It's one of those perfect summer days in Portland. You're up
early for a walk along the river, then a bike ride to the Attic in the
Hawthorne district, where you hide away at your private writing desk
& write, & write, & write. What you have in your writing
space is a private desk, large windows with lots of light, and quiet
time as a writer to think & to write--& even another writer or
two working quietly nearby, maybe in the next room (plus free wireless
though really you shouldn't be distracting yourself, should you?). And
all this with views of the Hawthorne district & downtown. Then a
few hours into it you take a break, get some coffee, & talk with a
fellow writer about your project--that screenplay or novel, the new
poems, the beginnings of short story that came to you three nights ago
in a dream. Then, back to your desk...
How do I rent a space?
E-mail db@atticwritersworkshop.com with "Attic Rooms" in the subject line to see if studio space is available.
Recent success by Attic students
Giovanna Zivny, poems in Gourmet magazine.
Verlena Orr, chapbook, One More Time from the Beginning, due out from Stony City Press.
Linera Lucas, her story, "Shamlet," won first prize in the 2007 Crucible Fiction Competition.
Jeffrey Selin has helped launch a sanctuary for writers in St. Johns called Writers' Dojo.
Todd Cobb, new book, Ghosts of Portland, has been published by Shiffer Books.
Greg Robilliard, to publish a novel with HarperCollins in 2008.
Scot Siegel, poems in New Verse News.
Caitlin Dwyer, poem in The Oregonian.
Lisa Loving, short story won the Oregon Writers Colony 2007 nonfiction contest.
Rachel Indigo Cerise Baum, nonfiction in Hip Mama.
Mark Fry, poem in Beloit Poetry Journal.
Cindy Stewart-Riner, poem in Calyx.
Plus, some faculty news...
Shanna Germain, her book, Screaming Orgasms and Sex on the Beach, edited for Pretty Things Press, is due out this fall. Also, stories in Best Gay Romance 2008 (Cleis Press) & The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica (Carroll and Graf Press). And poetry in American Journal of Nursing.
Merridawn Duckler, received the 2007 William Turnball Memorial Scholarship from the Squaw Valley Community of Writers' conference.
Bill Donahue, feature stories in recent issues of Travel and Leisure & in Runner's World.
What they're saying about the Attic
Philip Benz: I wanted to let you know how valuable I found the Attic's workshop. The assignments and the way in which they were critiqued were very useful in helping me to create interesting characters and shape narrative text to complement my story. I plan to continue enrolling in Attic workshops and have already referred a couple of writer friends as well.
Robin Yim: Being new to the world of writing as community and craft, I appreciate what I have found here at the Attic, because among the many experiences I have sought out in the past year to encourage my writing, my class here has been the highlight. I learned what to be ambitious about in my writing, and ways to challenge myself to write more.
Rob Freedman: After each class, I left feeling so stimulated that I could barely get to sleep. Lots of ideas jumping around in my brain, all I wanted to do was sit down at the computer and write. I'm glad I've found this intentional community of talented writers.
Scot Siegel: I feel like I have turned a corner. While I used to write for myself only, now I'm finding there is an end-use for all this work, and an audience! The interesting thing with The Attic workshops I have attended is that we rarely talk about the mechanics of getting published. The workshops are totally focused on improving writing. The instructors' wealth of experience, and the examples that draw on literature from around the world, make for lively and productive work sessions. Most of all, the Attic is a fun and safe place to push your boundaries and improve your writing. Publication seems to be an unintended consequence.
Claire Sykes: The workshop was able to get at the place where a writer was, and not without challenging the person to stretch, to move forward--and to venture into sometimes uncomfortable territory, the place where some of the best writing is born.
Can Portland become a center of literary culture? David Oates, Matthew Stadler, Sallie Tisdale, & David Biespiel address the City Club & the state of writing in Portland
Listen to the December 15, 2006 podcast. Read J. David Santen, Jr.'s review of the event in The Oregonian.
More news below...
Everett Charters awarded 2007 Gary Lodge Fellowship
The annual fellowship provides a Write Around Portland student with a class at the Attic
Write Around Portland runs volunteer-facilitated writing workshops for people affected by HIV/AIDS, survivors of domestic violence, people in recovery from drug/alcohol addiction, people in prison, seniors in foster care, people with physical or mental disabilities, teenagers living on the street, low income adults and others who might otherwise not have access to the power of writing and community because of income, isolation or other barriers.
The Gary Lodge Fellowship in Creative Writing is funded by the Attic & awarded annually to a Write Around Portland writer. The award is named in memory of Gary Lodge (1970-2005) who was a regular fiction student at the Attic.
Over 90 people attend Attic faculty readingAn overflow crowd turned out on Sunday, September 10, 2006, to hear Attic faculty read new work at the Blackfish Gallery in the Pearl district.
Highlights from the one-hour event include:
Merridawn Duckler's modernization & reinvention of the Adam & Eve story; Bill Donahue's songs of praise for mothers & grandmothers; Ariel Gore on tense religious dinners; Shanna Germain's poems on marriage; Garth Weber on domestic uncertainties; Claire Sykes on love & loss
Who teaches at the Attic?
The Attic's 5th Annual New Voices Reading "This is one of the best readings I've been to in many years," responded one person who'd never attended an Attic reading before.
With an audience upwards to a 100 people who were completely taken in by the intense writing & performances, we celebrated our fifth annual New Voices reading at Blackfish Gallery on June 23, 2006. "I wish you'd do these more often," another audience person said.
Beginning with memoir by Jacqueline Raphael & Hope Hitchcock, followed by William Bernhard's poetry & Luciana Lopez's fiction--it was one hour of some of the finest new writing out there.
Award announced for Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets
David Biespiel awarded the William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award as editor.
Read reviews of the book in Willamette Week, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian (Books), The Oregonian (Living), The Corvallis Gazette-Times, Powells.com, The East Oregonian, The Kitsap Sun, The Olympian, & The Seattle Times.
Plus: Listen to reporters from The Corvallis Gazette-Times read selections of poems from the anthology.
Joyce Carol Oates reads with Attic student Jacqueline Raphael,
winner of the Wordstock fiction contest
Congratulations to Jacqueline Raphael for winning the Wordstock Writing Contest in Fiction. Jacqueline is the co-author of How to Transform Your Writing in a Writing Group (Perigee, 1997). She is currently at work on a novel from which her winning entry was excerpted.
Lora Lafayette awarded the Attic's
2006 Gary Lodge Fellowship in Creative Writing Write Around Portland participant receives tuition-free workshop in poetry.
Lora Lafayette has lived in Portland for most of her life. She has published poems in The Oregonian, Pen and Ink, Sister/Friend, & in the anthology Recovery and Healing. She has been involved with Write Around Portland for many years often writes in the Sterling Room at the downtown Central Library. She is currently working on a novel, & in the fall will be a junior at Portland State University, majoring in English. Lora will be taking Garth Weber's poetry workshop this spring.
Opera with Cops?
Merridawn Duckler's libretto, C'Opera,
debuts in February 2006 7 Dancers, 1 Singer, 1 Actor, 3 Musicians & All Kinds of Members of the Los Angeles Police Department
Working with her sister, Heidi Duckler, Director of the Los Angeles Collage Dance Theater, popular & long-time Attic instructor Merridawn Duckler's new libretto will debut February 9, 2006 and run through February 19th at the Los Angeles Police Academy. A dance opera in 4 acts, the site specific dance company will lead the audience through the firing range, rock gardens, gym and coffee shop of the historic Police Academy.
Check out this New York Times article from February 2, 2006, for more information.
How to Leave a Place: 26 Short Memoirs by Portland WritersCheck out this anthology published by The Attic's Memoir Workshops
From the Introduction...
We are doctors, waitresses, housewives, and punks; grandmothers, rockstars, and runaways... Read more & purchase a copy of How to Leave a Place online.
Recent or forthcoming publication by Attic instructors
Ariel Gore...
How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights, forthcoming 2007
The Death and Resurrection Show, HarperCollins, a novel, 2006
The Essential Hip Mama: Writing from the Cutting Edge of Parenting, Seal Press, 2004
Bill Donahue...
"Lost and Found": John Donovan was a monk-like figure who lived alone in a succession of dingy $300 apartments and cultivated an almost holy devotion to his friends. Strange things transpired after he got lost and then died in the high mountains of Southern California: FROM Backpacker magazine (Oct 2006)
"Devils Tower": In the dead of winter, a solitary encounter with the nation's first national monument: FROM Via Magazine (September 2006)
"Under the Sheltering Sky," about the ghost of Paul Bowles in Tangiers, published in The Washington Post Magazine (September 2003) & reprinted in Best American Travel Writing 2004 (Houghton Mifflin)
"Life in Limbostan," published in Mother Jones (September 2003)
"End of the Run," published in Outside & reprinted in Best American Sports Writing 2003 (Houghton Mifflin)
Merridawn Duckler...
Yaddo Fellowship, 2006
"Heart of the South," story, forthcoming in Main Street Rag Short Fiction Anthology
The Collage Dance Theatre of Los Angeles performed her script of "The Hunger Artist: After Franz Kafka" on April 2-4, 2004 "Possible Jumper on the Narrow Bridge," a story, forthcoming in the GSU Review
Shanna Germain...
Spectacular Homes of the Pacific Northwest, 2006.
New short fiction in Absinthe Literary Review
Story selected for Best American Erotica 2007
What is The Attic?
The Attic is Portland's innovative literary studio. The workshops are small (limited to ten), supportive, and intensive. Students receive generous attention, geared to their present & future writing.
Read more about The Attic.
Just one of our recent workshopsThe Narrative Workshop
JOURNAL JUMPING: Your Diary as a Springboard for Poems, Stories, Memoir and More
Whether you’ve kept a journal for years, just started writing one, or have yet to crack open that blank book, this workshop will help generate and steer your personal ramblings toward finished, public literary pieces. Writing exercises between classes, and during (at The Attic and elsewhere in town); nonjudgmental sharing of your journal entries; and group-interactive criticism of your drafts and finished work all promise a fun and inspiring eight weeks sure to fill even more pages in your journal.
Claire Sykes
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