Sackett Street Writers

5,000 creative writers since 2002 in NYC & ONLINE

Class Schedule

Sackett Street workshops are limited to nine writers (8-week classes) and eight writers (6-week classes), and meet in private spaces throughout NYC and online. Every class includes the opportunity to have work critiqued in class, written feedback from both the instructor and classmates, and private consultations with the instructor.

A $250 deposit is required to reserve a spot (refundable up to two weeks before the class start date). To register, please complete an application and include a sample of work (1500-2000 words).

All returning writers receive a discount–$25 off 6-week classes; $25 off 8-week classes for writers returning for a second workshop and $50 discount off 8-week classes for writers returning for a third or more workshop.

Looking for ONLINE CLASSES?

Check out our Online Workshops in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Novel Intensive!

Not sure what class is right for you?

Submit an application and we’ll let you know!

6-week Writing Workshop: Building an Intentional Community for Writers of Color (open to both fiction & nonfiction writers) – begins 1.23.20– taught by Khaliah Williams in Park Slope (*3 spots available*)

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A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info. 

Over the course of this workshop, writers will gain skills in fiction and non-fiction writing while engaging in a community of fellow writers of color. During in-class instruction, writers will gain technical skills in character development, language, and style. The combination of an intentional community coupled with thoughtful writing exercises allows participants to immerse themselves in a unique workshop experience.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of both fiction and creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling story.

This workshop is open to writers of color working on fiction (short stories and novels) and creative nonfiction (memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism).

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Instructor: Khaliah Williams
Begins: Wednesday, January 23, 2020
Day/Time:  Mondays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $500

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Khaliah Williams is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Hawaii Women’s Journal, Frontier Psychiatrist, and Day One, and her non-fiction at Buzzfeed, American Short Fiction and Book Country. She is a current fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and an Instructor and Advisory Board member of Writers in Baltimore School. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.  She is at work on a novel and collection of short stories.

8-week Fiction Writing I/II – begins 2.6.20 – taught by Heidi Diehl in Park Slope

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 A writing sample is not required (but welcome) for this course.

Please fill out an application with name, contact info, and writing/writing class experience fields below.

In this workshop, writers will learn how to manipulate the tools of fiction-writing (point-of-view, plot, characterizing detail, tone, etc.) to craft complete and unique stories that engage the reader. In-class critiques and exercises, as well as lectures and feedback from the instructor, are used to help students further develop their writing. This course is intended for writers with some writing experience who are looking to learn more about what makes a story, “a story.”

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Begins: February 6, 2020
Day/ Time: Thursdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Instructor: Heidi Diehl
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $625.00

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Heidi Diehl’s debut novel, Lifelines, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in June 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, Mississippi Review, StoryQuarterly, Witness,and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Marble House Project, Norton Island/Eastern Frontier Foundation, Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center; she holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. Since 2010, she has taught expository and creative writing at Brooklyn College, where she is also the assistant director of the freshman writing program.

8-week Creative Nonfiction I/II – begins 2.11.20 – taught by Piper Weiss in Brooklyn Heights

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A writing sample is not required (but welcome) to register for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Instructor: Piper Weiss
Begins: Tuesday, February 11th
Day/Time: Tuesdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Brooklyn Heights
Fee: $625

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Piper Weiss is the author of the memoir You All Grow Up and Leave Me, named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Marie-Claire, Town and Country and PopSugar, and listed among the top true crime reads by Buzzfeed, CrimeReads and Elle Australia. She had previously served as an editor at the New York Daily News, and as editorial director at HelloGiggles, in addition to writing for print, TV and film. She was a fellow at VCCA and earned her BA in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

8-week Fiction II/III Workshop – begins 2.13.20 – taught by Chandler Klang Smith on the Upper West Side

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Writers participating in this selective course will learn to recognize successful techniques in their fiction–what engages the reader, and how that success is achieved. In-class discussions will focus on analyzing student work, particularly the many choices (point-of-view, tone, detail, pacing, etc.) a writer must make concerning structure, character and language. Each writer will have two opportunities to have his or her work critiqued in class (up to 25 pages each time) and will receive typed feedback from both the instructor and his or her classmates.

A private conference with the instructor is included. This course is intended for writers who have writing and workshopping experience.

Begins: February 13, 2020
Day/ Time: Thursdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Instructor: Chandler Klang Smith
Location: Upper West Side
Fee: $625.00

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Chandler Klang Smith is a graduate of the MFA creative writing program at Columbia University. Her new novel The Sky Is Yours (Hogarth/Crown, 2018) was listed by Entertainment Weekly as a “Best New Book.” The Wall Street Journal called it “mesmeric… a great and disturbing debut,” and NPR described it as “a wickedly satirical synthesis that underlines just how fractured our own realities can be during periods of fear, unrest, inequality and instability.” Chandler has worked as an editorial assistant at literary agencies and as a ghostwriter. She is currently serving as a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards for the second year in a row. She teaches and tutors in New York City.

8-week Creative Nonfiction Writing II/III – 2.13.20 – taught by Piper Weiss in Brooklyn Heights

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A writing sample is required for this class. Please fill out an application with your contact info.

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. In-class writing prompts will be used to inspire and motivate students to produce new work.

This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Instructor: Piper Weiss
Begins: February 13, 2020
Day/Time:  Thursdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Brooklyn Heights
Fee: $625

APPLY NOW

Piper Weiss is the author of the memoir You All Grow Up and Leave Me, named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Marie-Claire, Town and Country and PopSugar, and listed among the top true crime reads by Buzzfeed, CrimeReads and Elle Australia. She had previously served as an editor at the New York Daily News, and as editorial director at HelloGiggles, in addition to writing for print, TV and film. She was a fellow at VCCA and earned her BA in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

8-week Creative Nonfiction II Workshop begins 2.17.20 – taught by Sarah Perry on the Upper West Side

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Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story. Topics such as the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and how to craft structure from true events will be discussed. Participants will also spend time talking about the particular responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. This workshop is open to writers working on memoir, personal essays or in-depth journalism.

Writers should have writing and writing class experience.

A writing sample is recommended to register for this class.

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Instructor: Sarah Perry
Begins: February 17, 2020
Day/Time: Mondays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: UWS
Fee: $625

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Sarah Perry is the author of the memoir After the Eclipse, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Poets & Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Perry is the recipient of the 2018 Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and a fellowship from the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Her work has appeared in Elle magazine, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University and is the 2019 McGee Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Davidson College. She lives in Brooklyn.

8-week WRITING SPRINTS: A generative class for fiction & nonfiction writers – begins 2.10.20 – taught by Rachel Lyon in Crown Heights

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A writing sample is not required to register for this class. 

Writing Sprints is an exercise-intensive course designed to “unstick” writers struggling to start or continue new projects, boosting writing productivity.  The course relies heavily on in-class writing exercises, as well as weekly writing share-outs.  Students will be expected to read out loud; participate in in-class writing exercises; and produce approximately 5-8 pages of new writing EACH week for group feedback.

Begins: February 10, 2020
Day/Time: Mondays 7:30-9:30pm
Instructor: Rachel Lyon
Location: Crown Heights
Fee: $595.00

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Rachel Lyon is the author of SELF-PORTRAIT WITH BOY (Scribner 2018), which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Dublin International Literary Award. Her shorter work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in One Story, Longreads, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and other publications. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany and a cofounder of the reading series Ditmas Lit.

8-week Fiction Writing I/II – begins 2.25.20 – taught by Lena Valencia in Park Slope

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   A writing sample is not necessary to apply for this workshop. Please fill out name, contact info, and writing/writing class experience fields below.

In this workshop, writers will learn how to manipulate the tools of fiction-writing (point-of-view, plot, characterizing detail, tone, etc.) to craft complete and unique stories that engage the reader. In-class critiques and exercises, as well as lectures and feedback from the instructor, are used to help students further develop their writing. This course is intended for writers with some writing experience who are looking to learn more about what makes a story, “a story.”

A private conference with the instructor is included.

Instructor: Lena Valencia
Begins: February 25, 2020
Day/Time: Tuesdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Park Slope
Fee: $625

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Lena Valencia is the managing editor of One Story. She has held positions at A Public Space and BOMB Magazine, and served as a bookseller and events coordinator at The powerHouse Arena. Her writing has appeared in StoryChord, BOMB, The Masters Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA in Fiction from The New School and hosts the HiFi Reading Series in Manhattan.

20-wk Manuscript Generator (meets every other week) – for writers working on novels, memoirs, story and/or essay collections – begins 3.4.20 – Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn

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This generative workshop meets ten times total, and every OTHER week. Students have the opportunity to hand in chapters (up to 5000 words pages) every other week, and receive feedback from the instructor on these pages. The workshop is open to writers working on novels, memoirs, story and/or essay collections. Writers participating in this course will learn how to recognize the successful techniques in their writing – what engages the reader, and how that success is achieved. In-class discussions will focus on analyzing the many choices (point-of-view, tone, characterizing details, pacing, etc.) a writer must make concerning structure, character and language. This course is intended for writers who have some experience writing and workshopping.

Begins: Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Day/Time:  Wednesdays (class meets every other week) 7pm – 9pm
Instructor: Heather Aimee O’Neill
Location: Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn
Fee: $1350.00

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Heather Aimee O’Neill has worked with hundreds of novelists, memoirists, short-story and essay writers in Sackett Street’s popular Manuscript Generator Workshop (sessions offered either online or in Brooklyn), helping writers finish, polish, and find representation and publication for book-length projects. A novelist, essayist and poet, her most recent collection of poetry, Obliterations, is co-authored with Jessica Piazza and forthcoming by Red Hen Press. A recent Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow, her poetry chapbook, Memory Future, won the University of Southern California’s Gold Line Press Award, chosen by judge Carol Muske-Dukes. She is a freelance writer for publications such as Time Out New York, Parents Magazine and Salon.com.