85 Best Nonfiction Creative Writing Classes in 2024

Unlock the power of effective communication for scientists and health care professionals in this four-week course with a long-time journalist and editor, Christina Frangou. In this class, she will take scientists behind the scenes into the world of non-science publishing.

In this eight-week class, we will look at published works by notable essayists to see how their use of persona narrator and other elements of craft help them both to live into their material and to welcome the reader.

As writers and readers we all bring something different to the page and have our own lens with which we view not only the world, but the media we consume. Learn how to leverage your unique perspective and expertise into a well crafted essay on your favorite media.

In this class, you will discover ways to explore the physical and natural world by means of poetry. You will use observation, creative play, and iterative building, along with the constraints of forms, and the flexibility of free verse to represent scientific knowledge as poetic works of art.

Scientists and scientific entrepreneurs need to inform the public about their work. They are also now aware of the need to do so in the online content world. This course focuses specifically on blog writing. We touch briefly however on how one enters into this type of work.

This class is designed to guide beginner writers on how to write a high-quality literature review and research article for STEM subjects. The class is designed to give students a clearer idea of the best practices in scientific writing.

This class will help writers confront challenges around telling true homicide stories. To understand how masters do it, we will read David Carr, Marcela Turati, Truman Capote, and others. In class we will investigate the masters' tricks, and learn to describe real characters, understand their motivations and tell complex plots.

How do you weave a character's past into the narrative without overwhelming readers and slowing the pacing? This seminar will offer tools designed to help you incorporate backstory subtly and effectively, including in-class writing prompts.

Do you dread writing descriptions? If you want a better balance of dialogue, action, and setting in your writing, this one-day seminar will offer craft examples, writing exercises, and structures to help you set the scene.

Learn the art of baiting the hook properly to get your short nonfiction pieces published and paid for in this four-week course. Discover how to generate saleable ideas, craft winning pitches, and connect with the right editors and publications.

Learn and practice techniques for performing your writing. Think of it as a more fun version of a speech class: we’ll look at performance techniques from some incredible storytellers and have the chance to workshop your works-in-progress or completed pieces. While this class focuses on prose writing, poets are welcome!

This workshop addresses the overlooked work of cultivating the discernment, mindset and habits necessary to sustain us through the emotional challenges of the creative life. In this class, you will work through writing exercises that identify limiting beliefs, clarify your needs and motivations, and rejuvenate your creative process.