Explore Our Writing Classes—Summer & Fall 2026
How do we condense our writing to capture the pulse of a significant moment?
Join us at Orange Spot Coffee on July 22 from 6 - 7 p.m. for a workshop that will introduce the art of micro-essays. During the hour, we'll read examples, generate our own small works, and begin the conversation about how to refine our writing to include details that make it sing.
One 12-ounce tea or coffee included in the price; $35
Led by Laura Westby Cannon, a co-owner of Orange Spot Coffee and a member of the English Department at College of Charleston. Her creative work has appeared in Charleston City Paper, Tahoma Literary Review, Blue Mountain Review, and Revisionist. A micro essay on zinnias is forthcoming this July in The Good Life Review.
How do we condense our writing to capture the pulse of a significant moment?
Join us at Orange Spot Coffee on July 22 from 6 - 7 p.m. for a workshop that will introduce the art of micro-essays. During the hour, we'll read examples, generate our own small works, and begin the conversation about how to refine our writing to include details that make it sing.
One 12-ounce tea or coffee included in the price; $35
Led by Laura Westby Cannon, a co-owner of Orange Spot Coffee and a member of the English Department at College of Charleston. Her creative work has appeared in Charleston City Paper, Tahoma Literary Review, Blue Mountain Review, and Revisionist. A micro essay on zinnias is forthcoming this July in The Good Life Review.
Weekend Memoir Writing Workshop with, Cinelle Barnes
September 19th & 20th, Riverland Terrace, $400 for 2 days
Day 1: If the Form Fits, Saturday 10-3
Welcome
Lecture: Introduction
Group exercise: Identifying creatures in the wild: finding forms in magazines, online publications, bookshelves
Lunch
Individual writing time: Try different forms to see what fits (or at least features your unique story and voice)
Sharing time
Lecture: The Hermit Essay - Taking On the Shape of Objects from Daily Life
Homework: Find an object from home that has text (receipts, recipe books, prescriptions, DM or chat transcript, product labels, etc.)
Day 2: I Contain Multitudes, Sunday 10-3
Individual writing time: Try on a new shell
Sharing time
Lecture: I Am A Pie, and You Can Only Have A Slice
Short Exercise
Three Spaces in Nonfiction: Story Space, Exploration Space, and Discourse or Deconstruction Space
Short Exercise: Mapping out the three spaces
Next-Level Nonfiction: An Essay and Memoir Intensive
A two-day intensive designed for the essayist or memoirist who wants to take their nonfiction to the next level. Over two days of lectures and workshops, we will experiment with form, study the multinarrative, and map out essays and memoirs following the adage, "I contain multitudes." Conceptualized with women in mind, this course is for the writer who balances career, home care, community care, culture care, and other interests. However these spheres or roles intersect, there is a way to let them mingle on the page and use them so that written work bristles with confidence, clarity, and creativity. Whether you're pitching a fresh story idea or revising a travel essay, book-length project, or magazine feature, your writing will benefit from instructor Cinelle Barnes's diverse repertoire. You will leave the intensive with both focus and a writerly agility that makes your nonfiction work stand out.
Cinelle authored the memoirs Monsoon Mansion and A Way Home, the essay collection Malaya, and several essays in Travel + Leisure, Coastal Living, Southern Living, Newsweek, Oprah Daily, Buzzfeed, Longreads, and more. She is the editor of A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South, and served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir. Her nonfiction work has received awards from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, and the North American Travel Journalists Association. She previously taught at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Sackett Street Workshop, Catapult, and Writing Workshops Dallas, and has coached several essayists and memoirists through successful proposal development, pitching, and publication.*Scholarships available for women if the cost is prohibitive. Email for more information.
Cinelle Barnes
Author
Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir
Malaya: Essays on Freedom
A Measure of Belonging
A Way Home (Coming June 2026!)
Become What You Have (Coming 2027)
The Art of the Short Stories and Motherhood
Learn how to write a short story through reading, writing, and workshop
The Workshop:
I’ve always been obsessed with short stories, both as a writer and a reader. As a mother of a young child, it was a way for me to absorb a meaningful story within a shorter time frame that has a large impact. When writing, it became a critical skill to get the entirety of a story down within a shorter framework—a moment in a car ride, an interaction at a pharmacy, a comment at a cocktail party. As the writer Robert Sawyer says, “A short story is the shortest distance between two points; a novel is the scenic route.”
I believe that if you can write a short story, you can write anything. While they may appear intimidating from the outset, there are techniques and skills to be learned to make this form less intimidating, which we will dissect through reading short stories as well as sharing the progress of our own short story in workshop.
The themes for the weekend will be exploring modern womanhood through stories about motherhood, nature, marriage, and taking care of our parents.
The short stories we will discuss (they will be emailed to you after sign-up):
- The Midnight Zone, by Lauren Groff
- The Moons of Jupiter, by Alice Monroe The workshop consists of a kick-off meeting on Friday for a social hour, from 5-6 pm, and 2 workshop sessions on Saturday and Sunday from 10-3 pm, with an hour break for lunch. We will be meeting at a home in downtown Charleston (location emailed once purchased).
All classes will cover the foundations of writing: Story-Arc, Setting and World Building, Character Development and Perspective, Dialogue and Finding Voice. Each class will engage with writing prompts, short story analysis, and workshopping of participants manuscripts.
Dates: August 21st-23rd. When you sign up, we will email you with questions to tailor the class to each participants needs. Classes focus on fiction, non-fiction, and memoir writing. No writing experience needed to join and advanced writers welcomed. The only requirement is a desire to write!
Friday - 5 pm - 7 pm, meet and greet social
Saturday, 10 am - 2 pm, an hour break for lunch
Sunday, 10 am - 2 pm, an hour break for lunch
Location: Downtown Charleston - Address emailed after sign-up
Expectations for the class:
- Read all short stories and be prepared to discuss.
- Come to the workshop with a story or essay you’re currently working on that you’d like to workshop and get feedback on from the group. Your story/essay will need to be emailed one week before class. Minimum two pages, maximum ten pages.
- Read participants stories and give feedback.
Cost: $400, scholarship available upon request. Class size limited to eight women.
Questions, email Kate@miseenplacepr.com
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Kate Boyette started her professional writing career as the first editor-in-chief of the culinary publication, The Local Palate. She recently launched her boutique cookbook publishing company, Mise En Place Publishing, which publishes the female literary journal, REVISIONIST as well as multiple cookbooks. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2024, combining her two loves—cooking and storytelling.
The Art of the Short Stories and Motherhood
Learn how to write a short story through reading, writing, and workshop
The Workshop:
I’ve always been obsessed with short stories, both as a writer and a reader. As a mother of a young child, it was a way for me to absorb a meaningful story within a shorter time frame that has a large impact. When writing, it became a critical skill to get the entirety of a story down within a shorter framework—a moment in a car ride, an interaction at a pharmacy, a comment at a cocktail party. As the writer Robert Sawyer says, “A short story is the shortest distance between two points; a novel is the scenic route.”
I believe that if you can write a short story, you can write anything. While they may appear intimidating from the outset, there are techniques and skills to be learned to make this form less intimidating, which we will dissect through reading short stories as well as sharing the progress of our own short story in workshop.
The themes for the weekend will be exploring modern womanhood through stories about motherhood, nature, marriage, and taking care of our parents.
The short stories we will discuss (they will be emailed to you after sign-up):
- The Midnight Zone, by Lauren Groff
- The Moons of Jupiter, by Alice Monroe The workshop consists of a kick-off meeting on Friday for a social hour, from 5-6 pm, and 2 workshop sessions on Saturday and Sunday from 10-3 pm, with an hour break for lunch. We will be meeting at a home in downtown Charleston (location emailed once purchased).
All classes will cover the foundations of writing: Story-Arc, Setting and World Building, Character Development and Perspective, Dialogue and Finding Voice. Each class will engage with writing prompts, short story analysis, and workshopping of participants manuscripts.
Dates: August 21st-23rd. When you sign up, we will email you with questions to tailor the class to each participants needs. Classes focus on fiction, non-fiction, and memoir writing. No writing experience needed to join and advanced writers welcomed. The only requirement is a desire to write!
Friday - 5 pm - 7 pm, meet and greet social
Saturday, 10 am - 2 pm, an hour break for lunch
Sunday, 10 am - 2 pm, an hour break for lunch
Location: Downtown Charleston - Address emailed after sign-up
Expectations for the class:
- Read all short stories and be prepared to discuss.
- Come to the workshop with a story or essay you’re currently working on that you’d like to workshop and get feedback on from the group. Your story/essay will need to be emailed one week before class. Minimum two pages, maximum ten pages.
- Read participants stories and give feedback.
Cost: $400, scholarship available upon request. Class size limited to eight women.
Questions, email Kate@miseenplacepr.com
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Kate Boyette started her professional writing career as the first editor-in-chief of the culinary publication, The Local Palate. She recently launched her boutique cookbook publishing company, Mise En Place Publishing, which publishes the female literary journal, REVISIONIST as well as multiple cookbooks. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2024, combining her two loves—cooking and storytelling.
Poetry Pop-Up Class
Coming Soon!
Message me if you’re interested with dates and times that are best;)
Get In Touch
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