What is Radiant Academia?

A writing, revision, and feedback class where we analyze mentor texts to gain new craft skills, present on and analyze each others’ work in a workshop of recognition, and do annotations on a physical copy of your 50-200 page manuscript.

When is it?

September 6 - December 29, 2023

Class meetings Wednesdays at either 12pm or 5pm EDT

Mini-group meetings at your group’s discretion

What’s the vibe?

• Expanding possibility in your work — making it more experimental, unique, and specific to your artistic vision

• Learning craft from your favorite authors in guided exercises

• Academic — highlighting, annotating, post-it-noting, colored pen notes on physical manuscripts

• Careful reading & thoughtful feedback

• Close-knit community — group classes of 6-9, and mini-groups of 3 writers

• Making serious progress on your manuscript

What makes Radiant Academia special?

This class has a lot of the core features of a supportive writing class, such as live meetings, deadlines, and guided revision and writing exercises. But there are a few unique elements that I have curated over the years to best serve writers and their unique visions;

Mentor Texts

Instead of learning from texts that I assign to you, we’re going to make craft study more individualized and specific to your vision. I’ll assist you in selecting a mentor text, which is a book that is aligned with your writing goals or could serve as a comp title. Examples of past mentor texts that writers have chosen include JADE CITY by Fonda Lee, BABEL by RF Kuang, and ALL’S WELL by Mona Awad. This will be the text that you will study closely and present on in the first third of the class (and benefit from the presentations and exercises from your peers’ mentor texts!). We’ll be illuminating craft in very specific ways, not just surface level analysis. We want to activate the skills and style of the writer you’re studying. Some activities include paragraph anatomy, imitation pages, and identifying escape hatches in the plot to help with pacing.

Mini-groups

While you have live class meetings with your cohort of 6-9 writers each Wednesday, you will also be placed into a mini-group with two other writers who are tackling similar ambitious writing goals, or operating in the same genre as you. This is a place where you can share more overlap in your reading lists and be close readers to each others’ work. In addition to the regularly scheduled meetings that I’ll lead with the three of you, you can also design further meetings with your mini-group or smaller deadlines to help each other finish your work. I’ll be assigning more specific goals to the mini-groups as we get deeper into your projects so that you can all apply your own writing skills and perspectives to each others’ work.

Manuscript Review

The final third of Radiant Academia is an exchange of physical manuscripts. Throughout the fall, you’ll use revision exercises and workshop to put together a 50-200 page manuscript to submit. You will then be printing out and annotating the two manuscripts from your mini-group, and then mailing them off in December. You’ll receive back three annotated copies of your own manuscript, from your mini-group members and from me. Then, during the last week of December, we’ll have a final mini-group meeting during hackathon week to go over your feedback and make sure you feel set up to apply those notes on your work.

Secret Week Hackathon

During that week between Christmas and New Years where (ideally) work isn’t emailing you, we have our Secret Week Hackathon where we gather together to write for five days straight (Tues-Sat, since the holiday is on a Monday this year). We have daily write-ins to keep up the momentum and make sure you finish any lingering projects that you don’t want to bring with you into the new year. During this week we’ll also wrap up our review of your annotated manuscript notes.

Are there any genre requirements?

There are no genre constraints. The only commonality between writers in this class is that everyone is working towards a manuscript — it could be fiction, non-fiction, memoir, experimental poetry, epic fantasy, realism, surrealism, etc.

In class, you’ll get to read many different genres and learn from each other. But in your mini-groups of 3 writers you’ll likely be placed with writers who have similar aesthetics or goals (ex. multi-pov fantasy novels) so that you can help each other with the common pitfalls and celebrate the strengths of your specific genre.

Is this a good fit for me?

If you’re feeling like you want to give your writing project a big push, and if you’re someone who works well with accountability, deadlines, and community, then this is the spot for you!

You should also fill out the syllabus request form below and let me know your writing goals for this Fall. We already have a wonderful group of writers signed up for this class, and I’m making assignments for mini-groups based on genre, goals, and scope of the project, so I’d love to know more about what type of writing you’re bringing to the class.

Can I sign up even if I’m not in the Mini MFA?

Yes! The Mini MFA consists of two semesters, Radical Collapse in the Spring and Radiant Academia in the Fall. However, you can register for either one of these classes on their own.

If you join Radiant Academia for this semester, I promise you won’t be a fish out of water! There are all-new cohorts formed in the Fall and I put a lot of thought into the curation of the mini-groups. You’ll fit right in!

When is the registration deadline?

September 1.

Can I read the syllabus?

Request your syllabus at the form below!

(Mini-MFAers who are already registered — be sure to check your email for your syllabus!)

Are we required to wear tweed blazers to class?

No, this isn’t dark academia, it’s radiant academia. So please wear neon.