Courses in Creativity and Writing

In-person and online courses on writing, embodied creativity, pleasure and more!

Morgan teaches online and in-person courses on creativity and writing. She also leads writing classes with people impacted by criminal justice system, people in recovery, unhoused folks, healthcare providers, and school-aged kids through Sidewalk Poets, the nonprofit she co-founded. She’s taught writing classes at Lighthouse Writers Workshop nonprofit literary center for 9+ years, and undergraduate fiction workshops for 5+ years at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she received an MFA in Creative Writing.

Current + Upcoming Courses

VISIONARY—a Generative Writing Workshop

Tuesdays 5-7 pm MT July 7th – August 11th Virtual on Zoom

“We cannot create what we cannot imagine.” —Lucille Clifton

Join me for VISIONARY, a generative writing workshop where we’ll envision and build new worlds and ways of being; explore writing craft and techniques; and foster community focused on how we survive and create through one of the most wild and bizarre historical moments of… ever!

In this six-week workshop, we’ll meet once a week for two hours and use prompts and other inspirations to continue developing a current writing project or begin a new one. Each week will be unique, but will generally include a reading and writing prompt, discussion of a sample writing piece, exploration of a craft element or technique, in-class writing time, and “first-blush” sharing.

The goal of this class is to generate content and push into the edges of what you may already be working on or imagining. And/or to generate something(s) entirely new. There will be some sharing and light feedback, but this is not a formal workshop class. This class is focused on churning and creating.

Example readings will generally be speculative fiction (by which I include fantasy, sci-fi, magical realism, surrealism, horror, the weird, supernatural, etc.) but will also include other types of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. We will not limit ourselves. Prompts will most often be adaptable to whatever you are writing, but will also sometimes include new ways of thinking, looking and writing—maybe I’ll ask you to write a poem, or make art, or do something in your community. Sometimes they will be more freewriting or journal entries pertaining to our times, what we’re living through and what we want to see come after. There are so many ways to create.

Who is this class for?

Writers of any experience level, beginner to advanced. Anyone who wants to start or continue a writing project, be it a story, novel, creative nonfiction, or simply begin generating ideas.

Many of the prompts will be speculative-oriented (think fantasy, sci-fi, magical realism, surrealism, horror, supernatural, etc) so it will be especially useful for those genres, but you can be working in any genre and adapt it to your project.

If you want accountability and support, as well as fun and creative inspiration, in writing some pages this summer, this workshop is for you!

When does it meet?

Tuesdays July 7 - August 11, 5-7 pm MT Virtually on Zoom

What if I can’t make all the classes live?

All classes will be recorded (the sharing portions of the class may not be recorded). It is highly recommended to attend live whenever possible as this will be a very interactive class style, but recordings will be available if you need to miss a session.

What is the cost?

$444 or 2 payments of $222

(For payment plan: 1st payment due when you enroll, 2nd payment due by July 21)

How do I sign up?

speculative fiction workshop—Online

Wednesdays 6-8 pm MST February 18th – April 8th on Zoom

In this workshop, we’ll explore the realms of the irreal—finding the narrative possibilities that open up when we let go of our stranglehold on “objective reality.” We’ll look at examples of speculative fiction, including sci-fi, fantasy, fabulism, surrealism, magical realism and more, and in dissecting them come to understand both why and how they do what they do. Finally, we’ll all try our hands at our own forays out of realism, and into deeper explorations for those already familiar with the territory of the irreal.

The workshop will be both generative and workshop-based. Each week, we’ll go over different craft elements and approaches with related writing prompts, and every participant can also workshop their own writing with the group during the 8-week session.

My definition of spec fic is broad, and I want to keep the class open to as many as possible, so if you don’t fancy yourself a speculative writer but are interested in exploring new territory, you are still welcome.

Spark—An Empowerment course on creativity, sexuality + pleasure

Want greater creative inspiration and output, better sex and intimacy (and orgasms), and more capacity for joy and pleasure? (Um… yes, please?)

This may sound like a lot for one course to promise, but… here it is. Spark is a 12-week guided course and community, offering lessons, exercises, practices, and support to tap the vast stores of creative energy + power contained in our sexual and pleasure-seeking drives.

A major aspect of the course is working with the shame + fears commonly stored and storied in our beliefs and feelings about our sexuality (thanks, heteropatriarchy), which not only restrict our experience of intimacy and pleasure, but also drain our creative insight and capability.

As we begin to heal and clear blocks (through approval and integration—not more shame and self-blame), and approve of our embodied sexual and creative selves more, we gain access to huge amounts of creative potential—which we’ll then learn to channel into specific creative containers—projects, practices…and yes, pleasure.

The course runs on the premise that creativity is a sexual process. We’ll do a deep dive into this in the sessions, of course, but essentially it means that creativity—the act of creation, whether it be writing, dancing, art-making, business-making, culture-making, baby-making—is the fertilization of material: receptacle, container, seed, egg, with the spark of idea: vision, will, action. We’ll use this concept to better understand, enhance, and deepen our creative drives and processes.

Past Courses

world-building + character development in speculative fiction one-day at lighthouse north

Join us for a seminar exploring the realms of the irreal—fantasy, sci-fi, magical realism, surrealism, fable, fairytale—anything that departs from our stranglehold on a “true” reality. We’ll look at the ways that the “imaginary” can perhaps get closer to an emotional or ideological truth—and we’ll play at wading deeper into the waves of the imagination. This class will particularly focus on two of the most important, and most difficult, craft elements of speculative fiction—building a world and peopling it with rich characters (whether they’re actually people, or aliens, or talking balloons). World building is a tricky art, especially when you’re crafting one from scratch. How do you get in the important details without miring the narrative (or your reader) in the minutia? And in the face of fascinating fantastical worlds, how do you create vital characters who matter, both to the reader and within the context of their world? We’ll explore this and more in this one-day foray into the speculative sphere.

intro fiction + memoir Workshop: lighthouse writerS Workshop

In addition to lots of alone time, writers need a supportive, interactive group to learn a bit more about the crafting of books and to test run those pages tapped out under the midnight moon. This class for beginning fiction and memoir writers will be a combination of group discussion, lecture, and workshop. All participants will have the opportunity to share chapters for constructive critique and feedback. Discussions and lectures will be tailored to meet the needs of the group but will likely include effective character development, establishing and maintaining tension, character and plot arc, how to hook a reader into the story, and how to make scenes work together.

Form beyond freytag—experimenting with narrative structure: lighthouse writers Workshop

Many writers and critics have noted the way that our standard form of storytelling, Freytag’s pyramid—rising action, climax, falling action—is closely linked to patriarchal forms of narrative and power. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this structure, it isextremely limiting to remain confined to a single form—especially when large swaths of the population experience narrative in a vast variety of different ways! In this generative workshop, we’ll move beyond Freytag to explore other models and modes of storytelling. We’ll look at writers experimenting with form, try out some of their techniques, and play with inventing a few of our own!

Writing sex—crafting the erotic encounter: Lighthouse writers workshop

Like action and dialogue, writing sex scenes can be extremely intimidating. And rightly so—it’s tricky to do and especially to do well. Add to the intricacies of craft, all of our cultural taboos, repressions and baggage around sexuality and sex, and many authors take the easy road and avoid the subject altogether. In this workshop we’ll focus on the craft of erotic encounters. We will look at examples of sex writing in fiction and nonfiction and we’ll practice the mechanics and techniques of including sexual and intimate scenes (explicit or not) in our narratives, determining who, when, how, and how much. Just as in life, sex in literature is always more than just sex. We’ll deconstruct how sex scenes can enhance our understanding of characters and the power dynamics between them, and look at ways to deepen character development through exploring their sexuality. We’ll also spend some time considering our roles and responsibilities as culture-creators and how we want to handle our portrayals of sex and sexualities.

Advanced short story workshop: lighthouse writers Workshop

A weekly workshop for advanced writers of short stories. Writers of longer works are welcome, but the focus is on self-contained chapters and stories. The sessions concentrate on critique of member submissions and include writing exercises and discussion of published works as models of craft.

Prerequisite: One intermediate or advanced class or permission from the instructor.

draft a chapter in 4 weeks: lighthouse writers Workshop

This four-week writing intensive course will focus on the most important elements of writing a chapter of your novel while keeping you on deadline. We’ll start at the beginning (how to open a chapter), then discuss narrative arc, your story's characters, and how to this chapter ties into your novel as a whole. We'll cover outlines and think about how everything fits together. Whether you're on your first chapter or final!

intermediate short story workshop: lighthouse writers Workshop

Building on the foundations of Intro to Writing the Short Story, this class will consist primarily of workshopping short story drafts. In addition, we’ll use writing exercises and published short stories as launching points for generating new material and discussing aspects of the short story craft, such as narrative scope, narrator reliability, structure, building tension, and developing plot.

reading as a writer—octavia butler’s lilith’s brood: lighthouse writers Workshop

Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Octavia Butler (also the first sci-fi writer to win the MacArthur "Genius" Grant), masterfully utilized speculative fiction to explore issues of race, gender, “otherness,” and hierarchy—she used the fantastic to reveal the deepest truths of our humanity. Through reading her work, we'll discover how we can use the irreal in our own ways to expose whatever truths drive us.