Writing Classes and Workshops

Marya Summers has taught writing workshops in conjunction with FAU’s Honors College, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Center for Creative Education. Community writing workshops and classes are offered on an ongoing basis from Los Angeles to Orange county. Please contact the instructor with your interest and availability at summerswrites@gmail.com or visit www.whollycreative.com for current offerings.

Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing Workshop Consciousness meets craft in this course that uses ancient principles and practices to stimulate modern, creative writers of all genres.  Students will be guided through movement designed to develop focus, draw inspiration, stimulate imagination, and manifest creativity. Each session will include exercises on the mat and on the page. Participants will share their new work in a format that allows for supportive feedback.  This course is for every body — stiff or limber, young or old, beginners or experienced practitioners. 

A Writer on a Mission: Define Your Purpose & Focus Your Energies Why do you write? Why should you write? How do you know when enough is enough? Or when you should invest more time and energy? Private corporations and public institutions have mission statements that define their purpose and focus their energies. This same principle works for writers, too. This workshop will guide you as you discover your unique purpose and then express it as a mission statement that will motivate you to honor your creative urge.Crossing Over: Writing Ekphrastic Poetry Writers have long been inspired by artists of other mediums. Ekphrasis is the term for a work thus-inspired. Because good writing engages the senses, visual art and music can be powerful muses for writers. This workshop examines possible ways to engage with other art forms — how to “read” visual art or how to visualize music — and ways to express this in language. This workshop works well in tandem with museum and gallery exhibits as well as live musical performances.Lay Your Burden Down: The Powerful Relationship Between Shame and Writing We all carry some degree of shame; after all, our traditional educational system employs the fear (and, ultimately, shame) of failure to motivate students, and adults commonly employ shame to control children. Shame also results from trauma and victimization. In the end, however, the result is the same: silence and other forms of paralysis. (Hello, writer’s block!) Writing these experiences down can purge the toxic feelings, offering not only emotional relief but also source material. (Goodbye, writer’s block, and good riddance!) So whether your shame is great or small, whether you’ve ever been in therapy or you’ve never needed it, there’s something to be learned here. The workshop will examine the dynamics of shame, address how it manifests in our creative lives, and present steps to let it go.  Explore how to shamelessly use shaming and shameful experiences to empower your writing rather than undermine it.Mobilizing Social Theory for Public Demonstration: The Personal Essay as Literary Activism So you’ve studied social and political theory, and you’ve got some strong, well-informed opinions on how this world could be better. Now it’s time to engage with your community by writing a personal essay that gets to the heart of matter, not just the logic of it. This is a great  workshop  for those who wish to move their ideas beyond the academic realm and into the world-at-large.

Writing Workshop Series: (Re)Awakening the Writer Within This workshop series is especially designed for those who have longed to write but haven’t indulged the urge, or who have written sporadically but never really made a commitment, or who used to write but have lost the relationship with their writing. The workshops will offer writing prompts designed to stir your imagination and engage the senses. In each session, participants will generate new work, have the opportunity to share their writing, get feedback on manuscripts from the group, and present their work to the workshop leader for personalized feedback (either 10 pages of poetry or 20 pages of prose).

Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing Advanced Workshop Consciousness meets craft in this course that uses ancient principles and practices to stimulate modern, creative writers of all genres.  Students will be guided through movement designed to develop focus, draw inspiration, stimulate imagination, and manifest creativity. Each session will include exercises on the mat and on the page as we focus on aspects of writing (character, imagery, voice, pace and rhythm) and develop creative attributes (compassion, awareness, discrimination and discipline). Participants will share their new work in a format that allows for supportive feedback and will submit polished work for critical feedback.  This course is for every body — stiff or limber, young or old, beginners or experienced practitioners.