The Craft Lab for Writers
with Courtney Sender
What is The Lab?
The Craft Lab for Writers with Courtney Sender is a weekly online small-group reading, writing, and accountability group for creative writers, readers, and writers-to-be at all stages of their careers, led by New York Times writer and former Yale professor Courtney Sender.
What will you do in The Craft Lab for Writers?
The Lab will meet on Zoom for one hour once weekly, in small groups of 6-12 participants.
Each meeting consists of two parts.
Detailed breakdown of each meeting “In Detail” below.
1) Guided discussion of a short reading by a literary master, with an eye toward the craft lessons it has to teach us as writers.
2) An open floor for each participant to share work, set goals and deadlines, get feedback (or not), and ask for whatever it is you need as a writer that week.
Sign up now!
Register here.
Interested? Know someone who might be?
What will you do in The Craft Lab, in detail?
1) Each week, each participant will have dedicated time and an open floor to check in and keep your progress on track.
You might use this time to:
share what you've been working on;
get feedback on a bit of writing;
share your writing without feedback;
set a goal or deadline for what you'll accomplish in the coming week or what you'll bring to us next week;
talk through a snag in your work;
seek inspiration or advice;
ask a writing question to me or to the group;
discuss what you've been thinking lately about writing, reading, and the discipline of the work;
workshop a section; get our help in managing the logistics of time and space so you can write; etc.,
These check-ins treat you like the adult you are. Use the time as you need it each week, and I'll always help guide you.
2) Secondly, we will discuss a short piece of great writing, selected by me each week for one quality: quality.
These are writers whose voices grab you and compel you forward. I'll guide us in a discussion of the craft -- that is, what we as writers can learn from the weekly example. We won't be reading as literary critics or academics here. We're reading as writers seeking actual, useful techniques that we can immediately apply to our own work.
Examples of writers I have on deck include:
Philip Roth, Anton Chekhov, Elena Ferrante, James Salter, George Saunders, Jose Saramago, Sigrid Nunez, Roberto Bolaño, William Trevor, Claire Keegan, Milan Kundera, Katie Kitamura, Joy Williams, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.
*Note that readings are short, and the Lab assigns no "homework" per se. If you can't get to the reading in a given week, you're still invited and encouraged to come and learn from the discussion. The Lab is for your benefit, and it will always treat you as an adult; take from it what you need and not what you don't.
About Courtney
Why am I qualified to guide you?
I've written for The New York Times' Modern Love, The Atlantic, and Slate. My first book, In Other Lifetimes All I've Lost Comes Back to Me, was called "miraculous" by Ann Patchett, "fierce" by Alice McDermott and Danielle Evans, "literary rock 'n' roll" by Aimee Bender, and "a stunner from the very first page" by Deesha Philyaw.
I'm staff writer for iHeartMedia's #1-charting podcast Noble Blood. My short stories have appeared in Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, AGNI, Esquire, and many others. I'm a MacDowell and Yaddo fellow, and I've taught fiction at Yale, MIT, Tufts, and Johns Hopkins.
This is what you won't get in school: a real professor, keeping it real, for a fraction of the price.
Why am I starting The Craft Lab?
I've been a professor of fiction writing at Yale, MIT, Tufts, and Johns Hopkins. With humility, I've regularly been called the best writing teacher my students have had. But in the classroom, we have to deal with credits, deadlines, grading, busywork, and the bureaucracy of the organization's goals in addition to our own. Which means we don't really get to the meat of things: the writing itself, and the great reading that a real writer needs in order to do it.
That's why I'm starting The Craft Lab. I believe that what you need to succeed as a writer is reading the truly great stuff, with a guide who can help you understand the lessons it can teach you for your own work. You need encouragement and inspiration. You need the ability to learn from your reading and writing. That's where I come in. The 10,000-hours-to-mastery concept works best when you have a coach to help guide you along the way. I intend to be that coach.
The Craft Lab treats you as an adult. Above all, every session is designed to inspire your passion for your own work and your own vision.
My ethos
This is not a for-credit course or a workshop. It's a lab for adult writers, giving you only what real writers need and none of what they don't. That means you'll get accountability, encouragement, community, inspiration, networking, exposure to the literary greats, and rigorous but always warm, welcoming, and respectful guidance.
FAQ
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1) Each week, each participant will have dedicated time and an open floor to check in and keep your progress on track. You might use this time to: share what you've been working on; get feedback on a bit of writing; share your writing without feedback; verbally set a goal for what you'll accomplish in the coming week or what you'll bring to us next week; talk through a snag in your work; seek inspiration or advice; ask a writing question to me or to the group; discuss what you've been thinking lately about writing, reading, and the discipline of the work; workshop a section; get our help in managing the logistics of time and space so you can write; etc.,
These check-ins treat you like the adult you are: use the time as you need it each week, and I'll always help guide you.
2) Secondly, we will discuss a short piece of great writing, selected by me each week for one quality: quality. These are writers whose voices grab you and compel you forward. I'll guide us in a discussion of the craft -- that is, what we as writers can learn from the weekly example. We won't be reading as literary critics or academics here. We're reading as writers seeking actual, useful techniques that we can immediately apply to our own work.
*Note that readings are short, and the Lab assigns no "homework" per se. If you can't get to the reading in a given week, you're still invited and encouraged to come and learn from the discussion. The Lab is for your benefit, and it will always treat you as an adult; take from it what you need and not what you don't.
*Examples of writers I have on deck include Philip Roth, Anton Chekhov, Elena Ferrante, James Salter, George Saunders, Jose Saramago, Sigrid Nunez, Roberto Bolaño, William Trevor, Claire Keegan, Milan Kundera, Katie Kitamura, Joy Williams, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.
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In a word: everyone! If you're seeking writing accountability, encouragement, inspiration, passion, guided feedback, goal-setting, and weekly engagement with great writing and the lessons it has for your work, then this group is for you.
Whether you're a seasoned writer or just a writer in your dreams, whether you're laboring at your novel manuscript all day or just trying to squeeze in an hour to write around your workday, you're welcome here.
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The Craft Lab will operate on a monthly subscription model. We will meet on Zoom once weekly for one hour per week, in small groups of 6-12 people per lab. For registrants during the pilot period, the cost is $175 per person per month or $150 each if you refer a friend. Too often, writing groups really bond around week 10, right when the group is over. At The Craft Lab, you can stay as long as you want! Our ethos is that you're the adult here, and you know what you need to best support your own writing.
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Examples of writers I have on deck include Philip Roth, Anton Chekhov, Elena Ferrante, James Salter, George Saunders, Jose Saramago, Sigrid Nunez, Roberto Bolaño, William Trevor, Claire Keegan, Milan Kundera, Katie Kitamura, Joy Williams, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.
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The Lab assigns no "homework" per se. Readings are short. If you can't get to the reading in a given week, you're still invited and encouraged to come and learn from the discussion. The Lab is for your benefit, and it will always treat you as an adult; take from it what you need and not what you don't.
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I am looking into starting a small-group fiction workshop, as well as a themed novel-reading group. I'm open to your ideas in this form.
I currently do offer private consulting, workshops, and seminars for your business or party, but these are separate from the Lab. Feel free to reply here if you are seeking these services.