CLASSES

We offer writing classes led by our contributors and editors. We currently are offering the following writing series and workshops:

PITCHING 101: Arts and Culture Journalism With Eva Recinos

May 16, 2 p.m. PST
Zoom with slideshow, Q&A
Suggested donation $15; 50% of proceeds go to Queer Writers of Color Relief Fund

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Many of us remember that concert, art exhibition or book that brought us relief, made us think or inspired our own work. In this one-day workshop, arts and culture journalist Eva Recinos will walk you through crafting pitches to begin or prompt writing about cultural topics. Whether you want to write a piece with a personal angle, you’re looking to pitch a profile or you want to brainstorm a more lengthy feature, this class will help you get started. Includes a reading list and the option for email feedback on pitches. (Additional fee of $30 for one-on-one email critique of a pitch of your choosing.)

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

Eva Recinos is an editor and freelance writer based in Los Angeles. An arts and culture journalist, her work has appeared in Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Magazine, LA Weekly, Hyperallergic, Bitch, Artsy, Jezebel, VICE and more. She was a 2019 nominee for the LA Press Club Awards in the category of Arts & Entertainment Feature (Online).

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Writing and Releasing Personal Essays With Marnie Goodfriend

Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m. PST
May 19-June 16
Five week course, online
Instructor: Marnie Goodfriend
$250; 25% of proceeds go to The National Network to End Domestic Violence

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Personal essay is a blend of excavation, creative writing and craft. Now more than ever, we are looking inward to heal ourselves and the outside world, to create something beautiful when the world has fractured. Whether you frequently write personal essays or are feeling an urge to put a pen to the page during this strange season, we all need guidance, community and feedback to develop, revise and complete stories that help us understand the human experience.

In this five-week online writing course, participants will learn the art of the personal essay by dissecting structure (and how to bend it), voice (and how to find yours) and other essential craft elements. We will identify each writer’s unique voice and areas of interest. Through readings and discussions about what makes essays unique yet relatable to readers, we will generate lists of story ideas and workshop essays in a supportive and safe environment. The last class is reserved for the tools and resources necessary to submit work to the appropriate outlets and writing a successful pitch letter.

Led by AFLW’s creative nonfiction editor Marnie Goodfriend, this course will help experienced and new writers go from start to publish.

Marnie Goodfriend is a memoirist, journalist and 2016 PEN America fellow. She has received scholarships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Skidmore College and Vermont College of Fine Arts. A contributing writer for She Knows, she has published articles and essays in TIME, LA Weekly, The Washington Post, Yahoo, Ravishly, HelloGiggles and The Huffington Post, among others. Marnie is the creative nonfiction editor at Angels Flight • literary west and essays editor at The Nervous Breakdown. An adoptee and sexual assault survivor and advocate, she has written two forthcoming memoirs, BIRTH MARKS and CHEWING GRAVEL. Her based-on-true-events television series is currently in development.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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Homebound Heroes: Pop Culture, Self-Care and Writing With Danielle Broadway

Fridays, 7 p.m. PST
Weekly
April 3-Ongoing
Online
Instructor/Moderator: Danielle Broadway
FREE

ONGOING DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND! Sometimes the greatest act of heroism is survival. There isn’t enough attention or respect for vulnerable communities that challenge adversity through self-preservation. In the midst of this pandemic, the notions of power, prowess and endurance are being challenged, as people must practice radical self-care to fight off the virus. A hero isn’t always someone who can punch their way through any evil–they are the marginalized Black woman staying home, deep-conditioning her hair, watching a movie and having a tasty meal. They are the diabetic mother, allowing herself an extra hour of rest when her children are sleeping. They are the queer non-binary person with depression who gets out of bed to talk with a friend even when the weight is almost too heavy to bear. They are real people. No matter how bound to a health condition, location or situation we all may be, our radical imaginations are unassailable. Through actions of saving ourselves, we are helping to save the world.

In this weekly offering, Danielle Broadway will guide participants on a journey to find the inner heroes within us. Accompanied by playlists, including scores from The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Marvel and anime films, the class will feature pop-culture prompts, self-care rituals, and a dedicated time to write, read and share. Each prompt will reflect part of our current, sequestered reality. There is absolute freedom, as writing can be fiction or non-fiction. The goal is to manifest a sense of community in order to harness our collective energy. You may not realize it yet, but you are a mighty hero. It’s time to strengthen your power.

Danielle Broadway is an English Literature MA student at California State University, Long Beach. She has been published in Black Girl Nerds, LA Weekly and Medium, is a writer for CSULB’s the Daily49er, is a managing editor for Watermark, her school’s academic literary journal and is an assistant editor at Angels Flight • literary west. She has worked in education for more than six years and is a social-justice activist. To that end, she is an intern at East Yards: Communities For Environmental Justice in Long Beach, where she works with community leaders to change environmental policy. Inspired by her family and her ancestors, Danielle aspires to be a catalyst for change both in the classroom and beyond.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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PAST CLASSES:

PITCHING 101: Arts and Culture Journalism With Eva Recinos

April 18, 10-11:30 a.m.
Zoom with slideshow, Q&A
Suggested donation $15, proceeds go to United Way

Many of us remember that concert, art exhibition or book that brought us relief, made us think or inspired our own work. In this one-day workshop, arts and culture journalist Eva Recinos will walk you through crafting pitches to begin or prompt writing about cultural topics. Whether you want to write a piece with a personal angle, you’re looking to pitch a profile or you want to brainstorm a more lengthy feature, this class will help you get started. Includes a reading list and the option for email feedback on pitches. (Additional fee of $30 for one-on-one email critique of a pitch of your choosing.)

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

Eva Recinos is an editor and freelance writer based in Los Angeles. An arts and culture journalist, her work has appeared in Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Magazine, LA Weekly, Hyperallergic, Bitch, Artsy, Jezebel, VICE and more. She was a 2019 nominee for the LA Press Club Awards in the category of Arts & Entertainment Feature (Online).

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Crafting Survival Stories With Eileen Cronin

Saturdays, 10 a.m.-Noon PST
April 11-May 9
Five week course, online
Instructor: Eileen Cronin
FREE

Catastrophe is becoming more common an experience than Americans imagined possible. Climate change, pandemic, sex trafficking, mass shootings or singular catastrophic events are on our minds. The result is that our society has become desensitized to the realities of catastrophic events. This workshop will support fiction and nonfiction writers completing a dystopian novel, a memoir about a personal involvement in a catastrophe or with work that delves into the dynamics of trauma. Participants will explore universal themes, truths revealed about humanity, and contributions survivors bring to a world in which mass catastrophe is becoming increasingly common. This course unpacks those truths through lenses including globalization, cross-cultural studies, biology, technology, sociology, psychology, climate change, environmentalism, writing and literature, philosophy and history.

Taught by Eileen Cronin, an author/psychologist who has published on surviving a mass catastrophe, this course will help writers push through and delve deeper in their genres.

Eileen Cronin’s memoir, MERMAID (Norton, 2014), was translated into three foreign languages and was one of O Magazine’s Best Memoirs of the Year. She’s won fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center and the APA, and she won the Washington Writing Prize in fiction. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Daily Beast and numerous literary magazines. She teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension and practices psychology under UCLA’s School of Medicine, and is a founding advisory board member of Angels Flight • literary west.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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The Funny Thing About Memory: Writing the Memoir With Shonda Buchanan

Sundays, Noon-2 p.m. PST
April 5-May 3
Five week course, online
Instructor: Shonda Buchanan
$250

“That’s not the way I remember it.” How many times have writers described an incident in their lives only to have that memory be challenged by friends and family members? That’s the nature of the memoir beast and this class will help you deal with temporal transitions, accessing and recovering memory, and how to use memory to propel your narratives forward and how to craft your story in a way that leaves no doubt that it’s your story. Reading narrative nonfiction, literary and mainstream essays and memoir excerpts, we will analyze the work of authors who have successfully used memory as a tool in various ways to craft your own memoir.

The five-week course, led by memoirist Shonda Buchanan, will explore the genre in its multifaceted forms while discerning cultural perspectives such as gender, identity and ethnicity. Students will also find and hone in on their story, motif, plot points and develop several chapters by the time the class ends. Participants can feel free to enjoy food and beverages while the class talks and writes together as a group.

Shonda Buchanan an award-winning poet, author, journalist and educator at The College of William & Mary, Hampton University, Loyola Marymount University, among other places. Her recently published memoir BLACK INDIAN, explores her mixed-race identity. She also is the author of WHO’S AFRAID OF BLACK INDIANS? and EQUIPOISE: POEMS FROM GODDESS COUNTRY, and editor of two anthologies, VOICES FROM LEIMERT PARK and VOICES FROM LEIMERT PARK REDUX. A former PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, she is the literary editor of Harriet Tubman Press and a member of the advisory board of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts and Angeles Flight • literary west. To learn more about Shonda’s vast awards, experience and published work, visit shondabuchanan.com.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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30 Days: Journaling Through Catastrophe With Lillian Ann Slugocki

Daily
April 8-May 7
Ongoing, online
Instructor/Moderator: Lillian Ann Slugocki
FREE

Each participant in this offering will keep a guided public journal of at least 500 words for 30 days. The class will be structured like a Massive Open Online Class (MOOC), so people can drop in any time, day or night. Students will join a private Facebook group where each day’s prompt will be posted (and/or on Instagram/Twitter) at 6 p.m. PST. Participants can post their entry right on the Facebook page, or send by email, and indicate whether it’s private or public (with name/or anonymous). All the days’ entries marked public will be published on Angels Flight • literary west as a living, breathing document. Participants are also welcome to choose the day’s theme by pitching the idea to the group. The journal grows organically as a conversation and a shared document of our days together fighting a pandemic. This space is inclusive, all are welcome. You may use a pseudonym, and it is free.

Curated by Lillian Ann Slugocki, this offering will be a supportive group community effort to write and share.

Lillian Ann Slugocki is an award-winning writer and the curator and producer of BEDLAM: New Work by Women reading series at KGB, New York. Her nonfiction has been published in Longreads, The Nervous Breakdown, Volume 1: Brooklyn, Salon, Bloom/The Millions and others. She produced and wrote a documentary series for National Public Radio, co-wrote The Erotica Project with Erin Cressida Wilson, and her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, The Village Voice and others. Lillian is the special projects editor for Angels Flight • literary west and co-produced two East Coast Salons at KGB in NYC with AFLW co-founder Michele Raphael.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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Writing and Releasing Personal Essays With Marnie Goodfriend

Wednesdays, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. PST
April 8-May 6
Five week course, online
Instructor: Marnie Goodfriend
$250; Special: Bring-a-Friend 50% Discount

Personal essay is a blend of excavation, creative writing and craft. Now more than ever, we are looking inward to heal ourselves and the outside world, to create something beautiful when the world has fractured. Whether you frequently write personal essays or are feeling an urge to put a pen to the page during this strange and difficult season, we all need guidance, community and feedback to create, revise and complete stories that help us understand the human experience.

In this five-week online writing course, participants will learn the art of the personal essay by dissecting structure (and how to bend it), voice (and how to find yours) and other essential craft elements. We will identify each writer’s unique voice and areas of interest. Through readings and discussions about what makes an essay unique yet relatable to readers, we will generate lists of story ideas and workshop two essays in a supportive and safe environment. The last class is reserved for the tools and resources necessary to submit work to the appropriate outlets and writing a successful pitch letter.

Led by Marnie Goodfriend, this course will help experienced and new writers go from start to publish.

Marnie Goodfriend is a memoirist, journalist and 2016 PEN America fellow. She has received scholarships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Skidmore College and Vermont College of Fine Arts. A contributing writer for She Knows, she has published articles and essays in TIME, LA Weekly, The Washington Post, Yahoo, Ravishly, HelloGiggles and The Huffington Post, among others. Marnie is the creative nonfiction editor at Angels Flight • literary west and essays editor at The Nervous Breakdown. An adoptee and sexual assault survivor and advocate, she has written two forthcoming memoirs, BIRTH MARKS and CHEWING GRAVEL. Her based-on-true-events television series is currently in development.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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Energetic Protection in the Time of Corona

Saturday, March 28
2 p.m. PST / 5 p.m. EST
Facebook Live
Led by: Shilpa Agarwal
FREE

We all know the vital physical protocol of keeping ourselves safe during this pandemic. But we are not just physical beings. We are mental beings, emotional beings and spiritual beings too.

In this 30-minute free Facebook Live class, presented in collaboration with Angels Flight • literary west and Rukus Avenue Radio, author and healer Shilpa Agarwal will discuss how to access a vital energetic force to strengthen and uplift ourselves. Join her Saturday, March 28, at 2 p.m. PST/5 p.m. EST, at facebook.com/radiolifeforce. The class will be recorded and shared, as well.

Shilpa Agarwal is an author, healer and the host of the weekly radio show, LIFEFORCE, exploring the magical, mystical forces that awaken our lives. She a member of the advisory board for Angels Flight • literary west.

To register or for more information, please email: Info@AFLWMag.com.

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SALONS

We hold literary salons in downtown L.A. and in New York. All salons are free and open to the public. Each L.A. program concludes with author signings, with book sales by The Last Bookstore.

2018 salons:

National Poetry Month Salon at
The Last Bookstore, featuring Erica Blumfield, Shonda Buchanan, Jessica Ceballos y Campbell, Arminé Iknadossian, Karineh Mahdessian, Luivette Resto, Nikki San Pedro, Mary Soneia and Aruni Wijesinghe

Angels Flight • literary west East Coast Salon in NYC at The Red Room at KGB, featuring Jennifer Baker, Tobias Carroll, Ysabel Y. Gonzalez, Marnie Goodfriend, Alison Kinney and Michael J Seidlinger

Black Resistance in the Time of Trump at
The Last Bookstore, featuring Shonda Buchanan, Rachel Harper, Dana Johnson, Lia Langworthy, Michelle Maltais, Jonathan Tipton Meyers, Chris Terry and Rebecca Walker

Year of the Woman: Writing for Change at
The Last Bookstore, featuring Sylvia Brownrigg, Yennie Cheung, Natashia Deón, Karolyn Gehrig, Liska Jacobs, Kerry Neville, Eva Recinos, Carla Sameth, Solvej Schou, Laura Warrell and Aruni Wijesinghe

Also:

Annabelle Gurwitch and Heather Havrilesky at The Last Bookstore

Julia Fierro and Anthony Breznican at Clifton’s

Meredith Maran and Daisy Tong at Clifton’s

Lilliam Rivera and Siel Ju at Clifton’s

Chiwan Choi and José Luís Peixoto at Clifton’s

And:

Matthew Specktor and Tyler Malone at Clifton’s

Wendy C. Ortiz and Eileen Cronin at Clifton’s

Dana Johnson and David Kukoff at Clifton’s

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2017 events included:

Wall of Resistance: A Post-Inauguration Rising Up & Reading at Clifton’s

We held an epic post-inauguration event, in collaboration with David Rocklin’s Roar Shack Live Writes, to come together as a community and share contributions from our “Wall of Resistance” issue, on Jan. 22, 2017, at Clifton’s. Readers: Dana Johnson, Samantha Dunn, Chris Morris, Robin Rinaldi, Rich Ferguson, Désirée Zamorano, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Daniel Antonio Barron, Eirene Donohue, Haneen Oriqat, Erica Blumfield, John Balma and Paradigm.