Lyzette Wanzer, MFA

Have you been sending good work out to literary journals and contests and racking up nothing but rejections? Your submissions strategy and materials presentation–rather than your work–may be the reason why you're ending up in the rejection pile.

In this month-long workshop, learn how to locate a breadth of suitable markets for your work and incorporate practical tips on formatting submissions that demonstrate polish and serious intent. We'll go beyond journals and consider opportunities such as magazines, call for papers (CFP) lists, and writing contests.

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Have you been trying for years to have a panel proposal accepted at one of the major literary or humanities conferences, but haven't had any luck? Getting a proposal accepted at AWP, CEA, MLA, PCA, or numerous other conferences is a mélange of art, wordsmithing, and savvy pitching. It may not be your ideas that are wrong, but rather your written proposal's design and delivery. In this four-hour workshop, participants learn:

• What committees seek in an attractive proposal
• How to craft succinct, snackable, and significant descriptions
• Where to locate conferences that are excellent matches
• Why overwriting can kill proposals
• How to recruit and curate your presenters
• How panel titles can make all the difference
• Missteps to avoid in proposals.

Students should be comfortable navigating and researching on websites and sharing written work with classmates. Reserve your seat for this info-packed, virtual session.

A book proposal is an equation: a business case married with a marketing plan that you submit to publishers. In this workshop, students will learn the full spectrum of writing a first-draft proposal: what to include, what to leave out, faux pas to avoid, structuring your proposal in a professional format, and how to demonstrate to publishers that you're a serious writer who understands the 21st-century publishing landscape. Each week, students will write one draft section of their proposal. They will receive weekly critique on their drafts from the instructor, and they will also workshop sections with one another in small groups or partners. Students must have a completed or in-progress nonfiction manuscript, and be comfortable using Word, Google Docs, or Scrivener. Reserve your space for this popular offering early!

Transform your grant applications from rejected to funded with this comprehensive 8-week online workshop! This strategy-and information-packed workshop is open to writers of any genre who are planning to apply for a literary grant, fellowship, scholarship, or any national or International writers' residency opportunity in 2026 or 2027. With over 14 residencies, fellowships, multiple grants under her belt, Lyzette has been both applicant and reviewer, giving her unique insider knowledge of what funders want to see on and beyond your applications. Walk away with completed first drafts of your artist statement, project description, and professional materials – plus the confidence to apply for opportunities that will advance your writing career. Reserve your seat for this limited-enrollment workshop!

Have you thought about enrolling in a Creative Writing MFA program, but feel intimidated by the application process? Do you fret about how to make your application rise to the top in a stack of fierce competitors? How can you avoid the most common pitfalls?

You know how competitive these programs are and how exacting the admissions requirements can be. Learn how to curate a polished, professional, impactful application package that's designed to impress admission committees. In this workshop learn:

• how to avoid the blunders and omissions that many fellow applicants will make
• how to create a literary resume that adheres to professional standards
• the variations among program types (which format is right for you?)
• what to include in the dreaded personal statement–and what to leave out
• sources of funding support

Though this class is geared for people thinking about or planning to apply to an MFA program in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, playwrights and screenwriters are also welcome. Enrollment is limited. Registration is now open.

Being invited to read your creative work at a conference is a huge feather in your literary cap. This workshop offers information, guidance, and strategies for writers wishing to have their work accepted at a writers' conference, whether virtual or in-person. This workshop is open to writers of all levels who feel prepared to present their work at a professional writers' conference. Learn how to:

• choose the right writers' conference for you
• prepare a polished submission
• make a professional impression from submission to attendance
• secure financial support to attend
• practice conference etiquette: the do's and dont's of both applying and attending
• avoid common, costly mistakes in your CV and bio that mark you as an amateur

We will be engaging in hands-on research and working on our literary resumes. Participants completing this workshop will be prepared to select and prepare submissions for several literary conferences and have leads on finding funding to support travel. Registration is now open!

Four Wednesdays, 5:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific time, on Zoom

11/5/25 – 12/3/25 (No class on 11/26)

$180

For over four hundred years, Black natural hair has been the target of erasure efforts, demarginalizing us both as African Americans and as women. The various institutional modalities of policing Black women's (and men's) hair is a form of racist politics. Despite structural denials to the contrary, the fact is that our natural hair remains a heretical war zone. Policing of both Black bodies and our natural hair is a form of structural oppression.

White American society hasn't had to live as racialized beings. The White standard is implicitly the baseline against which all other standards are measured-- precisely the type of lens that problematizes Black, Afro Latina, and multiracial women's natural hair.

This month-long writing workshop is a safe, nurturing, intentional space to write and share your hair stories. While you will learn the conventions of good essay/memoir writing, we're not after perfection in this workshop; we're after exploration and reconciliation. Poems, essays, short stories, and hybrid pieces are all welcome. Bring your writing materials, be that a literal notebook, journal, sketchbook, or a screen and keyboard. If emotions come up, be they anger, sadness, outrage, or tears, those emotions are welcome. We'll begin with a series of prompts to help you begin writing. Each week we'll workshop our drafts with a partner, engage in revision, and have an opportunity to share our stories with the group.

Led by the author of TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH: Untangling Our Hair through Personal Narratives (Chicago Review Press) and producer of the 2021, 2023, and 2024 TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH conferences.

Reserve your space in this online workshop. Enrollment is limited. 

A Muses & Melanin production.

Thursdays, October 16 – December 11 (skip November 27)
5:30pm – 8pm Pacific time
$225

In this virtual, hands-on eight-week workshop, learn everything you need to convert your literary endeavors, intentions, and goals into consistent production, achievements, and the glue that holds all of these together: motivation.

Bullet journaling is not some cutesy arts-and-craft project on steroids. When you set it up and use it properly, this journal boosts your strategies and aims on two fronts: productivity, and publication. We'll start with the journal's fundamental systems and elements, move on to the key concepts of the Bujo practice, and then set up a journal that aligns with your writing goals for the next 18 months. This is a cohort-based workshop, where everyone will be invested in one another's progress and realization. You'll learn how to:

• track upcoming writing contest, journal submissions, artist residency, and grant deadlines

• ensure that you always have work circulating in the world, be that poems and a short story, a couple of essays and a grant application, or MFA program applications and literary agent submissions

• create goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely

• leverage the different seasons of the literary year to help streamline and focus your efforts, getting the most bang for your submission-fee bucks

• create a workload that is manageable and rooted in realism, not fantasy

• weave accountability into your process and practice.

Students should be serious, committed writers with an established practice who are comfortable sharing their class work with others and turning in assignments. This workshop is not suitable for beginner writers. 

Upon registering, students will receive a materials list. Enrollment is limited. If you'd like to book your spot, email with "Creative Writing Bullet Journal" in the subject line. We hope to see you there!

Reserve your seat now.

The key to a successful microfiction story is a well-defined character married with plot development, all compressed into a brief but potent narrative. These pieces foster creativity and expand writing skills, refining the ability to convey complex ideas concisely without sacrificing the story's punch or meaning. Microfiction is a genre that both challenges and sharpens your writing. In this workshop, you will write and revise a story of 300 words or less. During this class you will:

• read and parse multiple microfiction examples
• workshop your story with your peers
• receive instructor feedback on your drafts
• explore places to publish your piece.

This is an intermediate-level workshop. Prior prose or poetry writing experience is required and assumed. Get more information about this workshop.

Have you thought about enrolling in a Creative Writing MFA program, but feel intimidated by the application process? Do you fret about how to make your application rise to the top in a stack of fierce competitors? How can you avoid the most common pitfalls?

You know how competitive these programs are and how exacting the admissions requirements can be. Learn how to curate a polished, professional, impactful application package that's designed to impress admission committees. In this workshop learn:

• how to avoid the blunders and omissions that many fellow applicants will make
• how to create a literary resume that adheres to professional standards
• the variations among program types (which format is right for you?)
• what to include in the dreaded personal statement–and what to leave out
• sources of funding support

Though this class is geared for people thinking about or planning to apply to an MFA program in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, playwrights and screenwriters are also welcome. Enrollment for this hands-on workshop is limited.

September 3, 10, and 17, 2025

5:30pm - 7:30pm

African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco @ 762 Fulton Street

Early-bird registration through 5pm on August 18th: $175

Late registration: $200

This three-week in-person strategy- and information-packed workshop is open to writers of any genre who are planning to apply for a literary grant, fellowship, scholarship, or any national or international writers' residency opportunity in 2025 or 2026. This workshop will cover:

• The dreaded Project Statement, Work Plan, or Goals and Objectives question

• How to demonstrate a rising trajectory (remembering that most people who are awarded grants are on

their way up, not already there)

• Using headings and "buckets" to make your statement navigable

• How to craft clear, concise personal or "artist" statements that do not ramble (leave this class with a

completed first draft in hand!)

• Why the marketing angle is so important

Students should be computer savvy and must bring a laptop, iPad, or tablet computer. Come prepared to engage in a range of hands-on activities. Enrollment is limited. Book your seat.

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FUND YOUR MUSE is an offering of the Muses & Melanin professional development program for creative writers of color

Writers, it's time to set aside the bevy of excuses about why you're not sending your work out to journals,  newspapers, magazines, and contests. In this boot camp-style workshop, you'll focus on submitting a maximum of two short stories, articles, essays, and/or creative nonfiction pieces to 20 markets in just six weeks (poets should be prepared to submit a group of three to five poems.) In a safe, supportive community, you'll begin by learning proper submission etiquette and protocol, avoiding pitfalls that mark you as an amateur.

• Learn where to locate legitimate, respectable markets
• Become proficient in navigating the publication landscape
• Get practical tips on formatting submissions that look professional
• Find out what the most popular submission platforms are and how they make your life easier
• Write your author bio
• Create a Research Collection Sheet to identify individualized markets
• Select and use a professional submission tracker

This workshop is designed for committed writers who have one or two finished, polished pieces (three to five pieces for poets) of 5,000 words or less that are ready to send out for publication. Register to reserve your space for this popular, dividend-yielding workshop.