Who are the core faculty?

Jeannine Ouellette, Gina Frangello, and Emily Rapp Black. Check out their full bios here.

Is CRAFT SCHOOL a school or a creative community?

Both! In CRAFT SCHOOL matches (or exceeds) the rigor of most MFA programs, while also offering a safe creative space for genuine literary friendships to form and sustain themselves. Some writers will enroll in the program for a year, others will stay for many years, and still others will come and go as needed, one year at a time. 

What kind of writer should join CRAFT SCHOOL?

Prose writers with open hearts and a willingness to try new things. CRAFT SCHOOL is for prose (fiction or nonfiction, long or short form) who want to study acclaimed published work, identify and learn specific elements of craft in those works, apply those elements in their own work, and be part of a cohort doing the same. CRAFT SCHOOL will create creatively vibrant, diverse, and safe spaces to experiment and learn in a robust and eclectic group. We promise this community will be  accessible for beginners who are truly curious about writing, language and how words can make our world and our lives more rich, nuanced, and joyful. For writers who want to publish their work, CRAFT SCHOOL will offer rigorous, fresh challenges and inspiration. Like all WITD and CIRCE workshops, CRAFT SCHOOL will be highly participatory, generative, collaborative & inventive. You will be invited to (distracted into) leaving behind your burdens momentarily in order to engage with writing exercises that capture your imagination and take you to new places, spaces, and moments on the page. You will also have the opportunity to harness, practice, and deepen specific skillsets in your writing, which will serve you long into the future.

Can I join for less than a year?

No, CRAFT SCHOOL offers a cohesive, continual community model, where all enrollment is for twelve months. New members will be able to join only during designated enrollment periods. We want CRAFT SCHOOL and its faculty to focus on quality, craft, and community, not recruitment and enrollment management.

What is the time commitment?

Writers should plan to spend at least 2-3 hours a week on CRAFT SCHOOL in order to get the most from what the community and programming offer. That said, we all have up weeks and down weeks. Sick weeks. Travel weeks, etc. CRAFT SCHOOL is a self-initiated adventure–we enforce no deadlines or  required assignments in this entirely voluntary program.  While the monthly Zooms are scheduled and synchronous, and some small working groups might form specific  agreements around meetings, etc., most of the program is delivered via Mighty Networks, and is therefore entirely asynchronous, self-paced, and available for you to focus on as you are able, according to the schedule that fits best into your week and existing obligations. Even with time zone complications, replays make things more possible than ever–we have had, in past programs, participants from Europe to New Zealand to New York to California. Of course, as with anything in life, you will get out of CRAFT SCHOOL what you put in, so participants who spend time working on the close readings and the exercises and getting to know others’ writing and communicate vibrantly with one another in the comments will have a richer experience than those who spend less time overall. Further, the flipside of self-direction is that we must …direct ourselves–which is hard for all of us at least some of the time. This is where small groups and accountability buddies can help! But in the end, the program will be what each writer makes of it.

Wait, what if I don’t want to interact with people in the comments?

Totally understandable. Many writers are introverts and might not see themselves getting involved in small groups and the interactive digital spaces including comments sections. We get that! Some people have asked in both WITD and CIRCE’s previous online courses if they can just skip the whole idea of interacting in the comments. The answer is, yes. You can do CRAFT SCHOOL your way. That said, the way we interact in the comments might come as a pleasant surprise. Our discussions around the craft of writing are intricate, valuable, and often beautiful—and it’s an opportunity to test your ideas and get insightful responses from a community of invested readers. But CRAFT SCHOOL can also be treated like an independent study program if that works best for you. We appreciate and value all members, regardless of how much they are able or desiring to participate in the interactive elements of the program. Again, this program is built to work with you, however you like to work and learn.

Please note that our staff will provide tutorials and ongoing assistance in using the Mighty Network platform for those not  previously familiar with it or who may be anxious about technology. It is part of our job to help you orient and get  comfortable!

What if I’m still afraid?

Fear is a backdrop of most of our lives at this particular juncture in time, making creative fear even more difficult to face. But at CRAFT SCHOOL, we prioritize a creatively safe community while also trusting that an intersection of fear and excitement is where the new, true things come from, and where we become most capable of making our best art and evolving into most real, aligned, and integrated selves. While CRAFT SCHOOL cannot “change the world” and make it a less terrifying place, we can provide you with a community that values you, your art, and prioritizes curiosity and love over closed-mindedness and judgment. 

What will we actually do during the Zoom meetings?

During our monthly live Zooms, we will engage in incredible close readings of acclaimed literary work (essays, short stories, book chapters). Most monthly Zooms will include a visit from a guest, sometimes the writer whose work we are close reading, and that guest can answer our questions about their work, their writing process, our close reading of the work, or, at other times, about the literary industry. The year-long enrollment format will allow us to go much deeper in our close reading than in a traditional 10-15 week academic course. 

What will weekly CRAFT SCHOOL posts on Mighty Network offer?

Mighty Network will take our work deeper. There, we can engage in structured, generative writing exercises, close-read additional works outside of the Zoom meetings, share work in small groups, and engage with guiding questions as we work together to amplify our collective and individual understanding of the craft of writing. 

Will I get feedback on my work?

If you mean, will Jeannine, Emily, Gina, or the visiting writers offer written critique of your manuscript in a traditional sense? No: this is not a “workshop.” However, our weekly posts will be rich with interactive collaboration between members of our community, as well as core faculty. Together, we will identify what’s working best in published work and our own work, as well as the most useful questions to help each other push the work forward. If you are seeking feedback on your work in a more intimate way with Jeannine, Emily, or Gina, CRAFT SCHOOL also puts you first in line for an opportunity to work with us independently or as an ensemble at a reduced rate from WITD and CIRCE’s usual fees. Those who wish to receive personalized developmental edits or other forms of critiques/coaching will be able to apply for that work separately.

So, what are the non-negotiable requirements of CRAFT SCHOOL?

An open mind and heart. A willingness to show up and experiment together. A deep curiosity about language, its power and elasticity. A respect for the lives and words of those in the community. A tolerance for other people and  new ideas. An interest in reading and discussion. A commitment to putting some words on the page. A wish to create. CIRCE and WITD do not discriminate against anyone, regardless of age, color of skin, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender expression and identity, sexual orientation, or anything else. We expect the same from all of our participants.

How will CRAFT SCHOOL be co-taught?

Our three teachers have some 80 years of collective teaching experience. Over the course of the year-long CRAFT SCHOOL experience, each teacher will lead three Zoom sessions independently (always inclusive of a guest writer or editor) and the remaining three sessions will be co-led by Gina, Emily, and Jeannine together. All three core faculty of CRAFT SCHOOL have co-designed the curriculum and have been involved in tailoring every session regardless of who leads it. On Mighty Networks, Emily, Jeannine, and Gina will contribute regular writing exercises, fast prompts, and reading suggestions, while also partaking in the community in myriad other ways. Our all-star support team--Billie and Heather—will also be present on Mighty Networks to open generative writing rooms and small group sessions.