By Cybele Knowles

Staffer Cybele Knowles talks about our noncredit creative writing workshops.

The Poetry Center’s creative writing courses take place in one of the most beautiful classrooms on the UA campus. Floor-to-ceiling windows let in Tucson’s big sky, and a long table serves as anchor for the high-flying work that happens there. Sometimes I find myself in the classroom alone for a moment, to turn off the lights or tidy up, and when I do, I stop and appreciate it: this empty room, where so much can and does happen.

I’m passionate about our creative writing courses and the learning they enable because I’m a writer myself, a writer who needs a lot of instruction, coaching, nudging, and handholding to progress. I’m here to tell you the good news: that much of the art and science of creative writing can, indeed, be taught. It always feels good to learn, but when it comes to learning new skills within your calling (and most writers are called to write), it doesn’t feel just good to learn; it feels great.

Last summer I took a Surrealist Writing workshop through our Classes & Workshops program, taught by poet Matt Rotando. To explain what was so wonderful about this workshop, I need to talk about giraffes.

Giraffes, as you may know, are scared of ditches. You can confine a giraffe just by putting a four-foot ditch around it, because giraffes would never dare step in or over something like that. In our Surrealist Writing class, Matt made it seem like the easiest thing in the world to step across our respective, self-imposed four-foot ditches. He stretched out a hand from the other side, and we temporarily forgot that we were knock-kneed scaredy giraffes and remembered we were impulsive wildebeests, laughing hyenas, and self-congratulatory swans.

We wrote and we learned and we had tons of fun. And during the class, I wrote a short piece that later got published!

So if you’re a writer and you want to learn more about how to write, I encourage you to check out our courses. It feels great to learn.