Upcoming Classes

  • How to Begin (Again & Again)

    Sunday, January 25 @ 1-4pm ET, on Zoom (with recording)

    We are always beginning again. There is the first line we write on a page, but the deeper we delve, the more a story’s beginning will shift and evolve beyond our first impulse. In this class, we will explore both fresh & surprising ways to start a story, as well as how to reimagine our beginning once we are deep into the revision process. We will consider favorite first lines & use them to generate new stories of our own, discovering how to hook a reader from the very first sentence. We will also explore how to discover new possibilities for stories already in process, using core themes and images to unearth the most potent way to introduce a reader to the world of your story.  You can expect to leave with the starts of new stories and ideas for more, as well as a fresh process for (re)finding your beginning when you’re already careening towards the end.

    Read more here.

    Sign up here

  • Pleasure as Resistance: Writing Joy, Delight, and Liberation

    Sunday, February 15 @ 2-5pm ET, on Zoom (with recording)

    “There is no way to repress pleasure and expect liberation, satisfaction, or joy.” – adrienne maree brown

    Amidst the upheaval of our world, what happens when we attune our awareness to joy, delight, and beauty? What new stories – for our lives and for our world – might become possible to tell? This one-day class will be about fawning over the ephemeral, dancing with our delights, and probing the power of our pleasures. We will write into the moments that light us up, whether they are sensual, ethereal, radical, or simple, and discover how sourcing inspiration from pleasure can provide a portal into the darker, harder stories we wish to write.

    Read more here.

    Sign up here

  • Threading Paradox: The Art of Braided Essays

    Saturday, March 14 @ 1-4pm ET, on Zoom (with recording)

    Our lives are always weaving between presence and memory, sensation and logic, thinking and dreaming — and so can our stories. In this craft-centered class, we'll play with braided essays as a form for embracing life's paradoxes and contradictions. Through generative practices, we'll discover how to weave together threads of personal experience, history, science, and metaphor, spinning narratives richer in emotional truth than any single narrative could be. Come ready to write stories as compelling as you are.

    Read more here.

    Sign up here

What people say about Arya's classes

  • “Arya's class transformed my understanding of writing. I generated new material beyond the boundary of my own expectations” 

    —Mara K.

  • “Of all of my teachers in my adult life, Arya’s classes have been the most life changing I have had. I am endlessly thankful for her kind, grounded presence in my life as a mentor and an inspiration for my writing and professional life. Her workshops created such a precious space for true creativity, vulnerability, and deeper realizations about the truth behind the art we create.”

    — Julia P.

  • “I've always disliked writing, but Arya somehow miraculously helped me find joy in writing. She encouraged me to write like I painted and celebrate the quirky. Can we all learn to write?  Yes, if Arya is your teacher”

    — Sal S.

  • “Thank you for creating this opportunity where frequent writers and never-before writers and everyone in between can feel at home.”

    — Jenn B.

  • "Arya's class doesn't just help you probe the edges of your writing. It explores the core of you as a person. The community she cultivated was warm and encouraging. I left feeling connected to a group of total strangers as well as myself in ways that floored me. I genuinely shed a tear when the class ended because it was such a fantastic experience." 

    — Charlotte L.

  • "I would recommend Arya Samuelson's courses to any writer who is haunted by their inner critic. Arya does not teach how to write, she teaches the way to writing." 

    — Ganzfield B.

  • “Arya is a humorous, articulate, experienced writer and excellent creative guide. She listens deeply, acts compassionately, and brings her considerable knowledge to the table with every workshop participant, with writers both experienced and fresh” 

    —Emily S.

  • “Your approach is as much creative caregiver as teacher. You create a loving, intimate space for participants to truly show up, play, become inspired, and reach new milestones, without ever being talked down to or shoehorned into a certain style: a truly rare and beautiful thing. I've recommended your classes far and wide!”

    — Lex M.

  • “Arya's ability to cultivate writing communities that are at once challenging, meaningful, and supportive is truly unparalleled. In her classes, you'll explore depths that you were unaware your writing even had, sit with the awe, wonder, and discovery, and then probe the walls of the labyrinth even further. Through it all, you'll be seen, held, and heard by a community of diverse and talented peers.”

    — Julia P.

  • “Writing is one of my oldest and dearest dreams, one that I nearly allowed to die. This class revived that dream into a confident possibility and changed the way I look at the creative process, giving me a dynamic range of possibilities for revision. Arya guides with a gentle, nurturing hand and a wonderful sense of humor.”

    — Charlotte L.

A selection of past classes

I am available to guest-teach, customize a class, or adapt any of the following workshop to present to your community, institution, or organization. Please be in touch if you have an opportunity that you’d like to discuss.

  • Pleasure, Illness, and Memory: The Art of Embodied Writing

  • Braiding Paradox: How to Weave Complex Truths

  • Your Body Must Be Heard: Listening for the Songs of Your Self

  • Keeping the Channel Open

  • Writing Towards Wildness: A Non-Linear Approach to Writing Memoir

  • Writing the Body

  • Metaphors of Our Lives: Capturing Core Themes of Our Lives

  • Write Your Way Out of a Rut

  • Unearthing the Deeper Story

  • How to Write the Story You’re Afraid to Write

  • Where I End and You Begin: One-Day Memoir Workshop

Contact me