First Look: Announcing Our Summer 2026 Writing Classes!
Whether you want to tackle timely cultural essays, explore alternative story structures, or kickstart your memoir writing, our new summer lineup has something special for you.
Every year, we hear from writers who want to keep making progress during the summer — even if that means fitting in some quick classes in between vacations and all the rest. So this season we’ve put together a lineup of classes that are a little shorter, a little more flexible, and designed to fit into busy summer schedules while still providing the inspiration, accountability, and community that writers need.
First, a quick reminder for those of you who are looking to double down and write all summer long: we still have a few spots open for the summer session of the 2026 Narratively Book Incubator, our year-long mentorship program featuring close guidance from acclaimed authors and a supportive community of fellow writers.
Here’s a first look at what else is coming to Narratively Academy this summer.
Advanced Craft Workshop: Finding Your Structure
Finding structure is one of the hardest parts of writing nonfiction. You may have all the scenes, all the memories, all the reporting… but how do you turn it into a compelling narrative that readers can’t put down? In this small-group workshop, award-winning author Kristina R. Gaddy helps writers solve exactly that problem. Through close feedback and practical exercises, you’ll learn how to identify the shape of your story and build a structure that supports its emotional and narrative arc.
This intimate workshop for just 10 writers has become one of our most beloved — and fastest-selling — classes, so we’re excited to offer a new session starting very soon!
Writing the Zeitgeist: Weaving Pop Culture and Politics Into Timely Essays
Some of the most powerful essays published today use a seemingly small cultural moment — a television show, a celebrity, a trend, a viral news story — to illuminate something much larger about the world we live in. But how do you write these pieces in a way that feels insightful rather than reactive? How do you connect the personal, political, and cultural in ways that resonate with readers?
In this brand new workshop with cultural critic Alizah Salario, you’ll learn how to identify compelling cultural entry points, develop your own perspective, and craft essays that engage with the conversations happening around us right now. If you’ve ever read an essay about a current cultural trend or moment and thought, I wish I’d written that, this class may be for you.
The Art of Crónica: How to Write Immersive, Voice-Driven Nonfiction
Crónica — a form of immersive literary journalism that blends reporting, memoir, history, and personal voice — has produced some of the most vibrant and unforgettable nonfiction in the world. Yet it’s still an under-appreciated form among many English-language writers.
In this 4-week workshop led by an accomplished Argentine journalist Javier Sinay, winner of the Gabriel García Márquez Award for Journalism, you’ll explore the rich traditions of crónica and learn how to bring more voice, immersion, and emotional depth to your own nonfiction.
Our first session of this class sold out quickly, and we received so much wonderful feedback from writers that we knew we had to bring it back for another round.
Using Monologues to Power Your Memoir
Writing only one side of a narrative offers an evocative opening, a place for the audience to engage by filling in what is left unsaid. Tension soars, and the stakes increase. Monologues are widely used in advertising, theater, film, poetry and song lyrics. Yet this powerful form of expression is often forgotten when writing personal essays and memoirs.
This intensive workshop led by Rebecca Evans explores innovative methods to heighten your memoir writing through the use of monologue. Through fun and interactive exploration, writers will learn to refine and redefine their craft, distilling scenes into their succinct essence.
And finally, a reminder that we have two more self-guided prompts classes coming up this summer.
July: 31 Days, 31 Revision Prompts: A Month of Self-Editing Your Essays
So you’ve written some essay drafts—maybe even a lot of drafts—but now what? Does the idea of revision and editing strike fear in your creative heart? That’s natural, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This self-guided course is designed to help you tighten, strengthen, expand and contract your essays or memoir. It will help you add depth and background, make your narration shine, be more active with your word choices — in short, take what you’ve already written and prepare it for potential publication. Daily exercises and prompts include creating a narrator personality chart, finding the most resonant starting/point of your essay, and identifying ways to make your writing more active. The overall goal is to provide you with a self-editing toolbox of techniques you can use to polish your current drafts and perfect future essays.
August: 30 Days, 30 Prompts For Writing About Family and Relationships
Everyone has family issues to write about…and we all put it off, because it’s too hard too complicated, or we just don’t know how to write about the people closest to us. This new course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The prompts will help you find your own unique storytelling approach to essays about your family members, and your relationships with them and other people.
Questions about any of these classes? Drop us a line at academy@narratively.com.
We’d love to write with you this summer!