Writing Courses!

Below, you can find my current court offerings with links for registration. I love teaching, and if you’re an educator or admin for any writing/arts organizations looking to build out course offerings, I’d be happy to chat further and develop something that fits your needs. I have customizable programs for short (1-3 hour) one-off courses as well as recurring weekly courses and workshops. My specialties for craft classes and workshops include speculative fiction, queer horror, speculative revision, speculative nonfiction, essay idea generation, rethinking process. I am also available for class visits and can speak to how to submit to literary journals, how to write an artist statement, and what it’s like to build a career in the writing world. I also have a special haunted houses workshop that is perfect for high school and undergrad levels.

How To Never Run Out of Essay Ideas with Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

VIRTUAL
Saturday, September 27, 1-4pm EST
This workshop will be recorded, and everyone who registers will receive the recording afterward so it can be done self-paced if you cannot attend the live session.

Have a biweekly newsletter that's losing steam? Itching to pitch but fresh out of exciting ideas? This workshop is designed to give you the tools to find inspiration for creative nonfiction even when you think the well is dry (spoiler alert: the well is never dry). Through readings of unconventional essays and prompts designed to help you pull inspiration from unexpected places, I'll give you the tools, confidence, and discipline to keep finding things to meaningfully write about from your everyday life, memories, and environment.

Gays and Ghouls: A Generative Queer Horror Workshop

VIRTUAL
Tuesday, October 21, 1-4pm EST
This workshop will be recorded, and everyone who registers will receive the recording afterward so it can be done self-paced if you cannot attend the live session.

Whether you've dabbled in queer horror before or are entirely new to writing speculative fiction, this 3-hour workshop will help you harness and reimagine classic horror tropes on the page and unlock new modes of storytelling. Divided into four chapters—Curses, Haunted Houses, Ghosts, and Monsters— we will explore themed readings, lessons, and generative writing prompts for each. You’ll learn tools for better pacing, tension, character development, world-building.