Creative Writer’s Bootcamp 2-Day Intensive invites writers to produce and revise new work, deepen their knowledge of the craft of writing, and gain a comprehensive understanding of how to move toward publication. During the workshop, we devote time to the practice of safe, supportive community feedback. The culminating project of this workshop is the creation of a 30-Day Writing Plan, designed to support continued success with a sustainable writing practice.

On Site at UCLA Ext. DTLA
COST: $375

Everyday Mindfulness for Extraordinary Times (EMET ) is an online women’s mindfulness community that meets Friday mornings on Zoom from 8:45-9:45AM.

We welcome all women-identified individuals to attend regularly or drop in anytime.

EMET provides simple mindfulness practices that support quieting the mind and opening the heart. We work with breath, body sensations, feelings, and thought, along with heart practices such as good will and compassion for self and others, joy, and equanimity. Most EMET sessions integrate 1-2 practice periods with time for inquiry and discussion. Brand new and experienced practitioners are welcome.

EMET is a donation-based program with a request for $20 per session.

Register below to receive the weekly EMET email reminder and Zoom link

Creative writers thrive when they work in community.

This new course from the UCLA Ext. Writer’s Program offers students an opportunity to focus on reaching their writing goals without the stress or anxiety of critique and workshop.

Students will check-in weekly to describe their progress and their struggles with their project, receiving guidance from a seasoned instructor and enthusiastic support from their classmates.

Each week, I’ll provide motivational tools, best practices, and encouragement to better equip each writer with a supportive foundation upon which to complete their work.

By the end of the course, you will have made progress toward your writing goals along with meaningful connections with other writers.

NOTE: This is an online asynchronous course. It is not a writing workshop. There will be no live Zoom sessions. Students will have ongoing access to the course Canvas and I will provide weekly check-ins and motivational materials.

COST: $99

Registration opens July 28, 2025

 The spring Skirball creative writing workshop offers writers an opportunity to explore short stories and poetry. Ideally, participants will begin, develop, and revise at least one short story and two poems. We will work with published stories and poems to better understand elements of craft in these genres. Skirball welcomes absolute beginners along with experienced creative writers to join the workshop.

 8 weeks

(4 weeks poetry, 4 weeks short story)

5 weeks on site at Skirball

A special 5-week winter workshop designed to support writers looking for support with works-in-progress. Students will deepen their knowledge of the craft of writing and receive productive feedback from fellow students and the instructor. This course is suitable for all writers interested in revising and moving forward with their creative writing. 

On-Site at Skirball Cultural Center
Registration opens mid-December

When class is FULL, email adulteducation@skirball.org to be added to waitlist.

8 weeks on site at Skirball Cultural Center

Tuesdays from noon-2:30PM **NOTE: extra half hour this fall

This 8-week course offers new and experienced writers an opportunity to explore and experiment with a variety of imaginative writing genres, including poetry, fiction and personal essay. Participants will be creating new work each week. All writers will refine and revise at least one piece.

When class is FULL, email adulteducation@skirball.org to be added to waitlist.

COST: $220 Skirball Members $250 General Public

Creative Writer’s Bootcamp 4-Day Intensive invites writers to produce and revise new work, deepen their knowledge of the craft of writing, and gain a comprehensive understanding of how to move forward with their writing vis-à-vis publishing, retreats and conferences, and further workshops. During the workshop, we devote time to the practice of safe, supportive community feedback. The culminating project of this workshop is the creative of a 30-Day Writing Plan, designed to support writers for continued success with a sustainable writing practice.

On Site at UCLA
COST: TBA

Registration opens in Spring 2024 via UCLA Ext Writers Studio

Where I’m From begins with a visit to Yinka Shonebare’s immersive American Library installation currently on exhibit at Skirball Cultural Center. Shonebare’s art will become our jumping off point for a creative writing journey into the themes of home, citizenship, and national identity. Each week writers will create original stories (both “true to life” and fictional), inspired by accessible writing prompts. Those brand new to creative writing as well as experienced writers are welcome.

5 Tuesdays on site at Skirball

Registration opens in March 2024

9 Fridays, 8:45-9:45 AM Pacific

EMET/AWAKENING JOY moves through 10 steps, each one working to incline the mind toward the experiential awareness and felt sense of ease, happiness, and well being.

Attention sharpens. The window of tolerance widens. The heart opens. The result is a greater sense of calm, a stronger capacity for compassion for yourself and others, and a fortified ability to accept the whole range of life’s experience—pleasant and unpleasant and everything in between.

The online Awakening Joy program is donation based. Please consider a $20 per session donation. No one is turned away due to lack of funds. Each session lasts 60 minutes on Zoom.

Note: No class on October 6, October 27, November 17, December 1

9 Wednesdays, 9:30 AM - 11 AM (90 minutes)

AWAKENING JOY moves through 10 steps, each one working to incline the mind toward the experiential awareness and felt sense of ease, happiness, and well being.

Attention sharpens. The window of tolerance widens. The heart opens. The result is a greater sense of calm, a stronger capacity for compassion for yourself and others, and a fortified ability to accept the whole range of life’s experience—pleasant and unpleasant and everything in between.

Note: No class on October 4, October 25, November 15, and November 29.

COST: $360

This workshop connects with themes from Skirball’s exhibition, Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, notably exploring questions of identity, social justice, immigrant experiences, nature, and spirituality.

Each week we will focus on a few poems, paying attention to how a poet works with language, form, and content in writing a poem successfully. Our conversations will follow with experiments in writing poetry that reflects the genre and themes relevant to that week’s readings.

Course readings will include work by Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Terrance Hayes, Jericho Brown, Joy Harjo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Gloria Anzaldúa, Juan Felipe Herrara, Ocean Vuong, Victoria Chang, Li-Young Lee, Herman Fong, and Mary Oliver.

No experience with reading or writing poetry is necessary! The only requirements are curiosity and enthusiasm.

Cost: $150 General/$125 Skirball members

EMET resumes Fridays mornings beginning January 6, 2023 — Drop-ins welcome!

8:45-9:45AM PST on Zoom

The EMET sessions provide simple mindfulness practices that support quieting the mind and opening the heart. We work with breath, body sensations, feelings, and thought, along with heart practices such as compassion for self and others, joy, and equanimity. Most EMET sessions integrate 1-2 practice periods with time for inquiry and discussion. Brand new and experienced practitioners are welcome.

The drop-in EMET sessions provide simple mindfulness practices that support quieting the mind and opening the heart. We work with breath, body sensations, feelings, and thought, along with heart practices such as compassion for self and others, joy, and equanimity.

Everyone is welcome to join the EMET community and drop-in when the time works for you. Some folks attend every week, others on occasion. Once registered, you’ll receive the weekly reminder email that includes the Zoom link and the poem read at the previous session.

EMET is a donation-based program. I request $20 per session. Any amount that works with your budget is appreciated.

Please register below to receive the weekly EMET email reminder and Zoom link

6 weeks on ZOOM
Tuesdays 6-9 PM beginning October 11 (no class November 15)

In this six-week workshop, writers develop a productive writing practice and deepen their knowledge of the craft of writing. In this course, we design achievable thirty-day plans for success with a writing project and develop skills for recognizing and neutralizing the undermining powers of resistance and the inner critic. We also focus on the art of craft (plot, character, and voice) and devote time to the practice of compassionate self-critique. Class sessions include time for in-class writing, revision, and safe, supportive feedback.

Cost: $485

The Runcible Pen Spring 2022 creative writing workshop will focus on producing new work, developing work-in-progress, community, and craft. Each week I’ll offer a prompt which writers may use to develop a new piece (any genre) or as a new way in to a work-in-progress. Writers work in breakout groups each week, working with our Critical Response Protocol, and each week we spend time exploring on one aspect of writing craft.

In this incarnation of TRP we’ll spend time focusing on how and where to begin stories, novels, and poems, and also how to approach what I call “the 3 essential questions” that lead to strong storytelling, as well as the basics of scene building.

7 Mondays from 11AM-1PM Pacific on Zoom (6 workshop days and final sessions for all-class reading)

May 9 - June 20

$ 375

8 weeks
Tuesdays 11 AM - 1 PM PST, beginning September 21

Skirball Cultural Center on Zoom
Cost: TBD by Skirball (generally about $200)

Advanced Creative Writing at Skirball offers writers of fiction and creative nonfiction an opportunity to focus on writing craft and revision. ACW is for students who have work they want to hone, revise, and possibly submit to publication. Please note: this course does not prioritize producing new work. Weekly craft lectures and exercises as well as response to individual work are an important part of this workshop.

*Registration opens mid-August

When class is FULL, email adulteducation@skirball.org to be added to waitlist.

Beginning September 10 thru mid-December—DROP-IN ONGOING

Fridays

9:00-10:00AM PST: Instruction and practice
10:00-11:30AM: Inquiry/Q&A (optional)
$20 donation requested per session

EMET sessions are ongoing and open to those who are brand new to mindfulness as well as experienced practitioners. Participants can drop-in regularly or for a single session or more.

Our focus includes:

·      Mindfulness of Body—including breath, sound, senses

·      Mindfulness of Feeling & Emotions

·      Mindfulness of Mind—e.g., storytelling mind

·      Heart practices—compassion for self and others, joy, kindness, equanimity

 Register to receive the weekly EMET email reminder and Zoom link

The Runcible Pen REVISION Workshop offers writers the opportunity to produce 2 new pieces (essays, storries, or poems) and then to spend several weeks working on global revisions. This workshop includes presentations on writing craft with an eye toward revision.

Beginning and experienced writers are welcome. This workshop is limited to 8 writers.

Live online via Zoom.

6 Wednesday afternoons from 3:00-5:00PM beginning June 23, 2021

$300

Mindfulness and the Creative Writer offers an opportunity to produce innovative creative work by working with the language that emerges through foundational mindfulness practices. Students are encouraged to explore writing across genres—fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Absolute beginners and more experienced writers and/or mindfulness practitioners are welcome.

6 Wednesday evenings, 6-9PM Pacific
April 28 - June 2
$399

Everyday Mindfulness and Self-Compassion offers instruction in foundational mindfulness and self-compassion practices. Our emphasis will be on finding equanimity and joy in the present moment, even during challenging times.

This course is suitable for brand new and experienced mindfulness practitioners.

Registration opens in March at Skirball Cultural Center.

The Runcible Pen is Lesley’s signature creative writing workshop. The course offers writers a safe space to develop a strong practice , explore different genres of writing (personal essay/memoir, fiction, poetry) and strengthen writing craft skills among a respectful community of writers. We work with weekly writing prompts and a reader response protocol that emphasizes supportive, positive feedback and questions to inspire revision.

Beginning and experienced writers are welcome. This workshop is limited to 9 writers.

Live online via Zoom.

6 Monday afternoons from 1:00-3:30PM beginning April 5, 2021

$300

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SUMMER REVISION WORKSHOP.