Please email here to inquire about workshops, individual manuscript review, or one-on-one project consultation.
"Paula is a thoughtful, generous and exceptionally well-read teacher and reader; she facilitates groups of writers with true presence, warmth and expertise." --a Genre Blenders student
"I found the task of ordering my own poems into a cohesive book a particular challenge, so I hired Paula to look over my manuscript, Trace, and help with the order. She gave my manuscript a very generous reading and offered some detailed suggestions for a new order, and a few poems to discard. She was encouraging, easy to work with, and affordable."
--Melanie Figg, Trace won the 2017 Many Voices Project and is published by New Rivers Press
For almost two decades I have taught academically through places such as Minneapolis College, The University of St. Thomas, Hamline University's MFA Program, and NHCC. I have led a wide range of workshops, solo and in collaboration with fellow writers, activists, and artists through The Loft Literary Center, community art centers, public park buildings, elementary schools, regional arts councils, libraries, Minneapolis Continuing Education, and in my own living room.
Whether we work together in a group or one-on-one, I have a craft-based approach, an intuitive ear, an experimental bent, and a skill for meeting you where you are in relation to your writing goals. I love helping to map out the best possible way forward.
Whether we work together in a group or one-on-one, I have a craft-based approach, an intuitive ear, an experimental bent, and a skill for meeting you where you are in relation to your writing goals. I love helping to map out the best possible way forward.
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MANUSCRIPT CONSULTANT
If you are a poet or a hybrid text author who is ready to focus on a larger project--a chapbook or a full manuscript--I can help from details like line edits of individual poems to big picture questions like sequencing, cuts, or additions. I charge between $250 and $600 for books between 20-70 pages. Please contact me and tell me about your goals for your book, then I will provide a more specific list of services and rates. ___________________________________ INDIVIDUAL WRITING COACH If you have a smaller number of poems or pages of hybrid nonfiction and are craving some significant monthly feedback, I can help. Coaching includes careful reading of a 5-15 page packet of your work, line edits if you like, a detailed page-long (minimum) summary of my feedback, suggestions for further reading toward your project, and possible next steps. I charge a reading fee and a meeting fee (in person or by phone/facetime/Skype if from a distance) of $50/hour. If you are interested in coaching through an extended number of months, contact me to discuss tailored plans and discounts on coaching for 6 consecutive meetings or more. ________________________________ MORE TESTIMONIALS Working with Paula on my manuscript was productive and inspiring. Paula had a keen eye for both the larger arc of the manuscript as well as the close line edits. Her clear-eyed reading helped me to see both what the manuscript was missing and what was extraneous. Her honesty was much appreciated, too — she wasn’t afraid to tell me when something wasn’t working. All told, Paula’s editing skill, quick wit, and kindness made working with her a pleasure." --Kate Lucas, MFA, MSAB Recipient "The [Genre Blenders] class provided some solid food for thought on hybrid texts and was a good pace and energy for summer months. Paula's teaching approach is smart and light-hearted and kind." "Paula is very conscious of creating a space that's safe, comfortable, and inclusive." "I felt like I was in a master's level class that was incredibly economical." |
WORKSHOPS
_____________________________________ NEW: Labyrinth of the First Draft: A Virtual Workshop 6-8pm CST, January 19, 2025 A virtual, 2 hour session Pay as you can: $25-$50 Email here to register! Prepare for winter's inward journey. We will explore how to incorporate this tool of reflection and discovery into our writing practice by drawing labyrinths and using the tool to both generate new writing and to re-see stuck work. We'll play with labyrinth-inspired prompts. We will read a bit of mythology, contemporary poetry, consider archetype, engage the body, and examine other potential blocks in our paths. Participants will leave with some fresh writing and the ability to draw their own finger labyrinths, which pattern can be adapted to create full-size labyrinths with stones, chalk, sand, or snow in your yard or neighborhood park. _____________________________________ NEW: In the Cards: A Generative Poetry/Tarot Workshop Online 6-8pm CST, February 23, 2025 A virtual, 2 hour session Pay as you can: $25-$50 Email here to register! Image, insight, archetype. Your Tarot deck may provide guidance, but how can you also use the deck to generate or revise your poems? I will give a brief introduction of Tarot for newcomers and provide examples of a couple spreads. We’ll read and discuss a few famously Tarot-inspired poems, and I'll describe the process I've been using the past couple years. After that, we’ll generate work using the cards. Please feel free to bring your own deck if you’ve got one! If not, that's okay, too! _______________________________________ NEW: Vocalize-Verbalize Workshop at The Wolf House 6-9PM April 22nd, 29th, and May 6th, 2025 with an optional performance May 10 Register HERE. A revamped, expanded, and in-person blend of my generative labyrinth and tarot-based workshops with a focus on speaking up and speaking out. _________________________________ NEW: Genre Blenders 6-8PM CST, Tuesdays, June 17-July 22, 2025 Six virtual, 2-hour sessions Pay as you can: $120-$300 Email here to register! Start your summer by jumpstarting your writing practice! I run this private workshop for intermediate to advanced writers who are interested in blurred genres or in crossing genre (from poetry to prose or vice versa). We'll focus on writers who make it seem effortless: Anne Boyer, Claudia Rankine, Brian Blanchfield, Sun Yung Shin, Eleni Sikelianos, Bhanu Kapil, and Anne Carson, for example. For six 2-hour sessions, we'll read and discuss prose, poetry, and hybrid texts by one or two authors each week, I'll give a mini craft talk, and we'll generate writing based on prompts. You'll leave our time together with enough inspiration and supplemental prompts to keep you going long after the course ends. _____________________________________ PAST (AND FUTURE) WORKSHOPS Surrealist Parlor Game Salon A little generative party of chance operations. |
