New writing class!

Starting the first week of June 2025, the class “How to Publish Creative NonFiction and Essays” will be offered online every Thursday evening from Northern California.

Breaking into publishing without an MFA in creative writing can be difficult; and when we reside outside of major urban areas, or are working in isolation, figuring out the publishing world on our own is a challenging prospect. This class offers writers unique, hard-won insights from someone who figured it out, one step at a time.

About this Class: Our class will help you understand how to successfully navigate the publishing world of creative nonfiction, including flash CNF, long-form CNF, hybrids, hermit crabs, personal essays, OpEds, commentaries and short memoirs, among other formats. We’ll cover how to identify which publications currently accept submission and pitches, how to polish your work, and how to submit and pitch to the best publications matching your interests and expertise. You’ll be given tools, templates, and strategies for becoming a widely published writer!

Class Materials: The course will be held online (Google Meet) to facilitate participation in different time zones. All course materials will be offered for free (open access) and linked to Google Drive. Course announcements, discussions, and other materials will be contained within Google Classroom.

Ideal for: Writers of personal essays, flash nonfiction, and memoirs at any stage; poets who are ready to move into prose; activists looking to make a difference with OpEds, and for future authors who have been sitting on manuscripts-in-progress. Let’s get your words out into the world!

Instructor Bio: Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer’s life is devoted to the celebration and conservation of biocultural diversity: the intrinsic connections between nature and culture. An ethnoecologist with over 30 years’ experience in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, she is a scientific advisor to government, Tribal, non-profit and community-based organizations. A Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation/National Institutes of Health grantee, she published metanalyses in major scientific journals and edited several volumes on conservation. Her white papers have influenced international policies and practices, and her YouTube biopic advocating a zero-carbon footprint lifestyle has been viewed over a million times.

Chapters from Dr. Pfeiffer’s book-in-progress, The Language of Endangered Hearts, have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, anthologized, and published in the Bellevue Literary Review, The Citron Review, The Portland Review, The Guardian, High Country News, PBS SoCal, Undark, Between the Lines, Camas, Changing Skies, Flyway, The Guardian, High Country News, Hippocampus, Inverted Syntax, Langscape, The Lowestoft Chronicles, The Mountain Messenger, Medium, PBS, Re(Ideas), Route 7, Ruminate, Silver Needle Press, Sky Island Journal, Slate, Nowhere and elsewhere. Her video poetry has won multiple awards and been featured at the Gualala Art Center and her audio poems have been broadcast on Dan Robert’s radio show Rhythm Running River, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting station KZYX&Z. More at http://jeaninepfeiffer.com/jeanine-portfolio/

Schedule: Thursdays 6-8PM (June 5, 12, 19, 26) with a wrap-up session on Sunday June 29th from 6-8PM

• Session 1: Understanding the range of CNF and poetic forms; best practices for preparing, revising, and polishing your work
• Session 2: Finding the right publications (lit mags vs. zines vs. anthologies vs. major media), creating a professional bio, guidelines for submitting versus pitching
• Session 3: Strategies for scheduling and tracking submissions; locating and evaluating writing contests; simultaneous submissions, rejections, and resubmitting
• Session 4: Building your publication portfolio, online networking, writers webinars and conferences

Cost: $12 per session, or a discounted $40/month (four sessions), due prior to the first class.

Questions: Contact Dr. Pfeiffer at 707.969.7490 (text or voicemail)

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