Saturday, March 13, 2010

Writing Education Resources Near and Far

New Jersey writers have a wonderful resource in the Rutgers University Writing Program Extension (a/k/a continuing education), which offers in-person, online, hybrid, and one-on-one writing classes and coaching situations, some three dozen in all. These include classes in fiction, business writing, poetry, creative nonfiction, basic foundational writing, grammar reviews, journalism, writing for children, grant- and scriptwriting.

Registrations for the upcoming Spring sessions are ongoing. The two classes I’ll teach this time around are Memoir and Creative Nonfiction Writing (hybrid – 4 Saturday morning classes on campus in New Brunswick, 4 weeks online); and Writing and Selling Nonfiction Pieces (5 Wednesday evenings on campus).

I’ve lived in New Jersey nearly my entire life and yet I didn’t even know about this program until several months before I was invited to teach in it. Shameful, I know. But my point is this: We are often conditioned – as either writers/students or writers/teachers -- to begin the hunt for local writing education resources and opportunities with community, county and smaller colleges. But it may be that there are hidden gems within the much larger university systems, as well. Many highly reputable institutions now also offer writing courses completely online. UCLA’s catalog of online classes, for example, presents a richly varied mix.

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