Classes at the Attic

The Attic Academy brings the focus on fundamentals together with the freedom & fun of creative writing.

Writng Camp is a unique collaboration between the Attic Writers' Workshop & Breakerboy Communications, & will be led by writer Dave Jarecki.

Morning sessions: Writers will focus on poetry with a different guest poet each day. Guest instructors will guide writers through a variety of forms and styles, including haiku, free verse, slam and more, will help writers launch and craft new poems, and will lead them through the process of workshopping and offering meaningful, constructive critiques. Guest poets include San Francisco haiku master Gary Gach, Pamela Steele, Sage Cohen and others.

Afternoon sessions: Writers will explore various fundamentals of creative and expository writing, including narrative structure, character development, dialogue, setting, and place, as they launch new pieces of writing and work on existing ones. Sessions will also include free-writing, tools for beating “writer’s block,” and conversation around craft and story development.

For all registrants: After you register your student, we will e-mail back and we'll also need at that time information about your student that includes: Date of birth, age, grade, school attending, & your student's writing interests.

Questions? Call Dave at 503-544-7462.

Even when stories go farther, writers tend to turn away before the whole story is told. We forget the fact that the writing process is a journey in and of itself. While paths differ, we can all use a map to help find the way. During this six-week workshop, writers will focus on various fundamentals of good storytelling, including narrative arch, characters, plot development and more, with the goal of finishing our stories. Writers will also read samples from a number of classic and contemporary works of fiction, fantasy and nonfiction as they embark along the path toward completing their own great work.

For writers in grades: 9-12
Questions? Call Dave at 503-544-7462.

For many young writers, it’s a struggle to move their personal experiences from diaries and journals to the world of story, poetry, personal essays, fiction and biography. In this six-week workshop, writers will focus on the craft of good storytelling, narrative, and the places where the truth of the story begins to shine. This workshop will be especially helpful for students seeking to bring new life to their essays, who are thinking about writing a book, and who want to explore writing personal narratives.

For writers in grades: 9-12
Questions? Call Dave at 503-544-7462.

This workshop blends Elizabeth Rusch’s popular conference workshops on magazine writing (anatomy of a magazine feature, finding the story in the idea, the art and science of interviewing experts, adding color through site visits, targeting publications, writing winning queries) with time, inspiration, and feedback that will help you develop your ideas into riveting magazine articles. In addition to course fee, there is a $10 fee for copying articles and handouts.

Working with prompts and "jumping off places," writers will move from real-life haunts into the fertile ground of imagination as we thread the line between the truth of the truth & into the truth of the poem. We will also include crafting, revision, & critiques of contemporary poems & poets. This workshop is open to poets of all levels, & will be especially useful to writers who currently feel stuck or are looking for new motivation.

For writers interested in fashioning events from their lives into powerful, meaningful stories. Emphasis on jogging your memory & on finding the structures & patterns to tell your real-life stories. Special focus: locating your personal voice.

Learn to write creative nonfiction using models by Kelly Cherry, Raymond Carver, Ian Frazer, Gabriel García Márquez and others. Guided discussions on technique; written exercises; assigned nonfiction for study; informal in-class critique of student work; mutual support and encouragement. Students submit two short works and one revision.

The dedication to writing a novel can be a lonely experience. An opportunity for support, input, & critique. Students should have written at least one chapter. Discussion of style, theme, voice, & character development. By the end of the term, you will be farther along & know that you are working in a community of novelists.

A workshop on the essentials of story-telling. Emphasis on the motivations of characters & on transforming the familiar into stories. Strong feedback & direction.


Life Sketches is the Attic’s one-of-kind writing workshop for individuals 55 and older. In six-weeks participants will experience the pleasure of writing their essential personal stories, share them with peers, and preserve them in print for family and friends. Come on up. Tell us a story.

For writers interested in fashioning events from their lives into powerful, meaningful stories. Emphasis on jogging your memory & on finding the structures & patterns to tell your real-life stories. Special focus: locating your personal voice.

There’s nothing more fun than writing about ourselves! Whether you’re finishing a book-length manuscript or beginning a collection of personal essays, this course will help you learn the art of crafting your life stories into compelling narrative. Learn how to successfully incorporate the techniques of fiction, the proper use of “truthiness,” and how to keep the story going when you can’t remember a damn thing.

Learn how to capture big stories and emotions – either true, or imagined – in under 1000 words. Flash fiction and nonfiction magnify some small aspect of what it means to be human through concise, vivid prose. We’ll look at published examples of flash prose and examine your work-in-progress in a fun and supportive workshop format. You’ll create work which engages the reader long after they’ve put it down. For both fiction & nonfiction writers.

How do you tell the story? Whether fiction or truth, where do you begin? What parts should you tell, what do you hold back? This workshop will focus on moving through the narrative of your tales, and how to use the elements of your writing to move the story forward. We'll locate the emotional core of your stories to transform anecdotes and scenes into stronger tales. Along the way we'll take in stories by the professionals: short fiction authors, essayists and comedians.

How do you tell the story? Whether fiction or truth, where do you begin? What parts should you tell, what do you hold back? This workshop will focus on moving through the narrative of your tales, and how to use the elements of your writing to move the story forward. We'll locate the emotional core of your stories to transform anecdotes and scenes into stronger tales. Along the way we'll take in stories by the professionals: short fiction authors, essayists and comedians.

Of course, work isn't just the things we're paid to do. Volunteering is work. Raising children or raising plants, loving someone or leaving someone, creating a poem or destroying a painting, growing and letting go -- all of the steps of our lives are the kinds of work that rich, sensory poems are made of.

In this workshop, we will use prompts and reading samples to inspire and create work-based poems, then work through critiques and revisions. We'll also explore ways to recreate the experience of work on the page through use of the senses, language, narration and form.

You'll find the right atmosphere and feedback in this workshop devoted to your existing screenplay or your dream one. We'll discover tools for formatting your idea (whether its specifically for film or something you've adapted from another piece of your writing), writers block, or isolation. Special emphasis on character and plot development--and on finding the inspiration to complete the thing. A great class for moving you from idea to the screen.

Work on your creative writing and earn academic credit too. The "Write Now!" workshop for teachers allows you to write freely. Free of consequences. Free of daily concerns except to nurture your creative life.

Plus: In partnership with Western Oregon University, teachers who take the "Write Now!" workshop can earn professional development graduate academic credit.

The goal of the workshop is both to renew enthusiasm for your own creative writing and to generate original work. We will use writers’ lives to generate new pieces. The class will focus on “teachers as writers” with the understanding that renewed enthusiasm for one’s writing will be carried over into your classrooms and in turn help invigorate your student-writers.

No previous writing experience necessary. Open to all K-12 teachers of any subject.

Or drafts of picture books that you want to polish and submit? Through studying the picture book form, reading successful picture books, doing writing exercises that help you develop your characters, narrative and voice, and by critiquing and having your work critiqued, this intensive picture book workshop will help you develop your picture book ideas into finished, polished manuscripts.