As a lifelong Richmond and writer, I finally started venturing into local writing classes in 2024. Prior to that, I did a lot of online or self-paced courses (see this blog for my recommendations).

These are ones I’ve personally taken and have adored. I hope to keep adding more as time goes on and I keep experiencing everything Richmond has to offer.

Have one you recommend? DM me at @writinggales on Instagram or email me at gales.gretchen@gmail.com to recommend your favorite courses.

Writing the Shadow

Taught by Doug Jones, Writing the Shadow is offered at both the Visual Arts Center of Richmond as well as through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). The class explores the darker side of human characteristics, from real life stories to fictional tales. This class is suitable for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writers and encourages exploration through all genres. While it’s no replacement for therapy of course, the class is incredibly therapeutic and allows for the taboo to be explored in writing. In my class, the prompts were thought-provoking and the readings included poetry, fictional stories like “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and excerpts from memoirs.

Doug has said each class is different, so every time you take it, it has different readings, prompts, and experiences. I plan to take the class again at some point to get a different experience.

To get a discount on the class, both places offer memberships that allow for discounts and early registration, as the class fills up fast. I personally love memberships to both to get access to similar classes at different days and times and look at the variety of courses offered at each.

Advanced Poetry

If you are a poet with experience or an English major or MFA candidate looking for additional support and solid craft talk, keep an eye out for Leslie Shiel’s Advanced Poetry course at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

I first took a class taught by Shiel during my undergraduate English degree at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and had the honor of taking this course 10 years later. You will never meet a poet and teacher quite like her unless you take this class. This class is a gift and an appropriate amount of supportive and challenging to push your poetry to new heights.

You will leave with 3 to 5 polished poems, paper resources, and poetry books to reference and share with one another during the course.

Confessional Poetry

If you are a Plath apologist or someone who loves a good navel-gaze-y poem, Catherine Carson does a phenomenal job of balancing the key elements of confessional poetry, historical contexts of the genre, and encouraging us to use mentor texts to learn new writing techniques. Catherine is also very welcoming and even for the brand new poet, makes her class approachable without watering down the content.

Through her class, you can easily walk away with anywhere from 3 to 6 new poems ready to submit to journals. You also get a chance to have supportive people critique your work. Available through the VMFA and on certain occasions, the Visual Arts Center.

Shameless Self Plug

I am also a writing teacher in Richmond, Virginia, though most of my classes at the moment are one day workshops through Quarry (like Craft of Writing Club that happen every third Thursday of the month UNLESS something else is scheduled) or writing workshops for kids through Richmond Young Writers and Smart Solutions Tutoring. But keep an eye out for multi-week workshops for adults listed in the future. One day I hope to be worthy of this list, too.

See my current workshops, classes, or camps at the upcoming events page and sign up for my Substack to see options as they are added.