Courses & Workshops
The intention to create a sanctuary begins with the recognition that the land, plants, trees, water, air, and light, are all sacred. Everything is sacred including the oasis of our balcony, our neighbors’ yards, the trees at the local park, and all the nearby trails that snake over hills and mountains and past waterways.
Autumnal Equinox:
A Writing Workshop
September 19, 2026
In this nature-inspired writing workshop we will honor the Autumnal Equinox that arrives on September 22nd. Our gathering is meant to honor this moment in the Northern hemisphere by holding the past, present, and future while we explore the topics of celebration (looking to the abundance and brightness of summer), change (observing the shifts in the natural world of colors and temperatures), and preparation (setting our intention for winter and the coming darkness).
All levels of writers and types of genres are welcome.
Place: Zoom
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
Time: 10AM to 1PM PST (Time Converter)
Price: $50 (Venmo, PayPal, check)
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Forms of Poetry
Winter 2027
6-week asynchronous course
Christina is a standout instructor, as indicated by the five-star rating. Christina demonstrates care and concern for students' well-being outside of class and works with students to accommodate their needs with understanding, flexibility, and compromise.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
more testimonials
Amy Lowell wrote, “No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that his verses burst from his overflowing heart of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care,
as the cabinet-maker.”
Let’s look at poetry from a designer’s perspective. As a designer of poetry, we are charged with creating works of beauty that sometimes fall within certain parameters such as: What does this “space” need? What do I want to “say” here? What are my materials? In this course, students will address the design qualities of a poem by experimenting with forms like the sonnet, ballad, ode, haiku, and villanelle.
Level: No previous experience required.
History: Teaching since 2015.
Course Number: WCWP-40308 Credit: 2.00 units
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
American Literature: Stories of Immigration
Winter 2027
6-week asynchronous course
Immigration is a national topic and has inspired heated debates, policy, protests, classes
like this one, films, songs, paintings, novels, poems and much more. Whether you are witness, participant, or a
child of an immigrant, you can likely agree that immigration has shaped our country and our understanding of our world in complex ways.
This course mostly centers on the immigration experience of those entering the United States and writing in
English. We’ll explore the ways that acclaimed authors, including Maxine Hong Kingston and Piri Thomas,
have used literature to express what it means to be an immigrant, or a child of immigrants. We will read
narratives now considered classics in the literature of immigration, as well as contemporary pieces, portraying
immigrant experiences from China, Japan, Russian Poland, Africa, and Latin America, to name just a few.
Through these texts we will investigate the ways that immigrant identity influences both the lives of those who
made the journey and the lives of their descendants.
No previous experience required
Course Number: LIT-40022
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
