Fanfare! Fans of URSULA K, LeGUIN - Quality Affordable Course Starts Soon!

[CarolMS]

The Community of Writers, based in the Sierra mountains of Northern California, is a highly respected writers' organization that has long offered workshops of the highest quality taught by well-known, published authors (such as Amy Tan, Karen Joy Fowler, Janet Fitch and many more) who are members of the community. I did a weekend "intensive" course with Janet Fitch that was outstanding, as well as demanding: starting with a zoom meeting on a Friday night and ending with one on Sunday night, we did seven zoom lectures with discussions, did homework readings and writing, had additional small group discussions and even a private consultation with Janet--all for much less cost than many single courses from sources like Curtis Brown Creatives or Jericho Writers. I haven't taken more than the one Community of Writers online course, but suspect others will be of similar quality, so you might want to check them out. The next course is a study of Ursula K. LeGuin's works, and goes on for multiple weeks for $240. (Financial aid is also available.) And this season's offerings include a lot of poetry courses as well. The types of things offered vary from time to time. I recommend getting on their mailing list. Words Are My Matter: A Short Course on the Craft of Ursula K. Le Guin | Community of Writers

Community of Writers

 

[Hannah F]

$240 dollars may be high quality but certainly not affordable for many. In fact, some courses of equivalent length at Curtis Brown cost a similar amount. Also, you can read a lot about Ursula LeGuin's works on-line for free.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/5-Lessons-on-Writing-From-Ursula-K-Le-Guin

Analysis of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Novels

When Ursula K. Le Guin (October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) has Genly Ai state in The Left Hand of Darkness that “truth is a matter of the imagination,” she is indirectly summarizing the ess…

literariness.org

A Writing Lesson from Ursula K. Le Guin

The following is the first chapter of Ursula K. Le Guin’s updated edition of Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story, available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcour…

lithub.com

'She makes the ordinary feel as important as the epic': the gift of Ursula Le Guin

She is known for magical worlds that have less in common with Hogwarts than Icelandic legend, but Ursula Le Guin’s writing also champions anarchistic politics

www.theguardian.com

 

[Peyton Stafford]

? Somebody fill me in on the story UKLG was brilliant. Is this course her or a scammer?

 

[Hannah F]

? Somebody fill me in on the story UKLG was brilliant. Is this course her or a scammer?

If it's her, it would be worth paying the money. Seminars lead by a ghost would be something else indeed. (She died 2018).

 

[CarolMS]

I agree. There is a ton of material available about Ursula LeGuin. The best resource, one which not only links to perhaps everything that's ever been written by her and about her, from her pubished works to craft advice and personal sharing, and includes interviews, videos and more, is the website that developed out of the one she herself had. It's now a well-organized wealth of information about a remarkable woman and writer. It's ursulakleguin.com, managed by the Ursula K. LeGuin Foundation.

Ursula K. LeGuin

As for my earlier post, I really just wanted to let people know about The Community of Writers as a resource for quality online courses. That weekend intensive I took a few years ago was jam-packed, both with information and wonderful live interactive discussion in addition to the lectures, and I learned so much. Applying the word "intensive" is an understatement. The Ursula LeGuin course just happens to be the next Community of Writers course coming up, followed by a bunch of poetry courses.

Sorry if I misinformed about the cost difference between the courses. I think I either misread the course descriptions--wrongly reading the single course descriptions for about the same price as for single session webinars rather than having multiple meetings, and I also thought I saw some classes on Jericho Writers website that were close to $1000 for the same number of meetings--or I may have too quickly figured the UK pounds to US dollars. My mother used to say "haste makes waste." Duh. In any case, I think $240 for the amount of live lectures, Q&A discussions, critique discussions and a consultation with the author/teacher was, I thought, a real value. I can't usually afford that price, but it was worth it, so much more so than a lot of other things offered for such a price. I usually just take webinars in the free to $50 range, such as from Tiffany Yates Martin or others like her. Again, real value! But more limited in scope.

 

[CarolMS]

? Somebody fill me in on the story UKLG was brilliant. Is this course her or a scammer?

The Communitiy of Writers is not a scam organization by ANY means. Take a look at the website and who the writers involved in the community are. It's been around a long, long time and is much respected in the literary fiction world, and poetry. Check it out at About | Community of Writers.

 

[CarolMS]

? Somebody fill me in on the story UKLG was brilliant. Is this course her or a scammer?

If you read the course description you can see the course is a discussion/analysis of some of her works, led by a respected author Karen Joy Fowler. Fowler's novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves won the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award, the California Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2014. There are some other guest authors listed for the course instruction as well.

 

[CarolMS]

If it's her, it would be worth paying the money. Seminars lead by a ghost would be something else indeed. (She died 2018).

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to briefly meet her before she died. It was 2014, I think, and I was new to writing fiction, and going to author readings every chance I got to do so. One evening I was at a group reading by several writers associated with one of the more long-established writers' communities in Oregon, the Mountain Writers. It was at a Portland coffeehouse, and Ursula LeGuin read some recent poems she'd written. She was such a lovely woman, with so much wisdom, much beloved in the Portland writers' community and beyond.