This 6-week course led by Sarah Mae Afriam invites you to hold your grief in your hands and to give it a shape, a smell, and a name. In mainstream culture, we’re taught to push through our grief, which results in our bodies and psyches holding on to the pain of our loss while we force ourselves to go back to work, back to school, back to the “real world.” This course asks the question: What happens if we explore our grief through writing? 

Each class will focus on a creative element of writing into our grief, allowing us to flesh out the unique and universal experience of deep transformational loss. We’ll read excerpts of other authors writing about grief; we’ll learn how grief is represented in ancient mythology; and we’ll break off into in-class writing exercises followed by discussion, sharing, and gentle feedback.

Poets, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and hybrid writers welcome.

(We know 2.5 hours is a long time to Zoom, so there will be snack and stretch breaks throughout each class.)

6 sessions, all 10:00 am-12:30 pm PST (1:00-3:30 pm EST):

1. Sun Apr 3

2. Sun Apr 10

3. Sun Apr 17

4. Sun Apr 24

5. Sun May 1

6. Sun May 8

You must be enrolled before the first session to attend the full course.