Workshops
Agency Workshops
We hold free writing workshops for adults and youth in nonprofits, hospitals, schools, treatment centers, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, low income housing residences and other social service agencies. To ensure everyone has access to writing in community, we provide journals, pens, bus tickets, childcare and snacks for participants in these workshops.
Our workshops for nonprofits typically run for ten weeks, two hours per week.
The workshop curriculum focuses on experiential learning, generating new writing, and building on the writers’ strengths. Workshop participants write stories, poems, memoirs, letters and essays while experimenting with imagery, character development, dialogue and early-draft revision. To build community through writing, our workshops are facilitated by extensively-trained volunteers who write and share alongside participants through a series of freewrites and positive, strength-based feedback.
Come write with us!
Proceeds from the programs below help support Write Around Portland’s free agency workshops hosted in nonprofits, low-income housing communities, correctional facilities, hospitals, schools, treatment centers and other social service agencies.
Write Around Portland provides high-quality, participant-centered creative writing workshops for all
BIPOC Workshop – single workshop sessions
For people who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC).
I love being witnessed, and I absolutely love witnessing the words of everyone else in the group. It’s our own kind of magic.
—BIPOC Online Workshop Participant
2nd & 4th Friday of every month
4:00 – 5:30 pm PST
Free
Workshops are held via Zoom
Pre-registration is required. Registration opens the 1st of the month every month and closes when filled or at 12:00 n the day before the workshop.
Freewrite – single workshop sessions
Freewrite is a 90-minute virtual writing session. No preparation or experience is required! Led by a Write Around Portland volunteer facilitator, Freewrite consists of writing, sharing, and giving strengths-based feedback to each other. It’s a great way to unlock your creativity, build or maintain a writing habit, and get some writing done!
2nd Thursdays, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM PST
4th Tuesdays, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM PST
Sliding Scale: $5 – $50*
Workshops are held via Zoom
*We have a limited number of free spots available in each Freewrite workshop for people experiencing financial hardship. Email Leah at lmiddleton@writearound.org to reserve a spot.
Prompt – workshop series
If you’re in a rut, Prompt will get you out. If you’re lacking confidence in your writing, it will build you up. And if you don’t think you have a unique voice, it will prove you wrong!
—Past Prompt participant
Looking for accountability and new writer friends? Our popular Prompt workshop series is back with a virtual 8-week series to get your pen moving. Get signed up here!
Join us for our next workshop on Travel & Adventure writing
Want to turn your travel journal into a polished piece? Have a swashbuckling idea for an adventurous poem or story? Join us for a wanderlust-filled Prompt workshop where the only limits are your imagination! Whether you’re writing a true tale or a more wishful piece, our workshop will give you the perfect summer escape while you get some writing done.
Tuesday Evenings, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
8 Sessions starting July 11
Sliding Scale: $195-$395*
Workshops are held via Zoom
*We have a limited number of free or low-cost spots available for people experiencing financial hardship. Email Leah at prompt@writearound.org to sign up for our waitlist.
Workplace Roundtables- single workshop sessions
Bring creative writing into your workplace! Write Around Portland’s acclaimed model works incredibly well for teams. For years, we have been proud to offer companies and organizations access to writing in community. From building trust to facilitating belonging and inclusion, our workshop model is flexible enough to accommodate many different outcomes in the workplace.
Planned around your team’s schedule
2-hour session; can accommodate any size team
Roundtables start at $1,000*
Held virtually or in-person
Ready to get started? Contact Chris at cmcdonald@writearound.org
*Nonprofits receive 25% off and Write Around Portland agency partners (who’ve held a workshop in the last 5 years) receive 50% off!
