SO.

Growing up, I was taught that the best writers in the world were white men. They were Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway. They lived hard, died young, had bad breath, wore blousy pants, drank constantly, beat their wives, were maybe gay and wrote every morning in a musty study at a mahogany desk surrounded by papers with a servile woman nearby. These men were joyless, they worked best in solitude and their books often bored me. 

I founded the Brooklyn Writers Collective — live virtual classes, online writing videos + workbooks, and IRL writing retreats —  three years ago as an antidote to the alienating, anemic narrative around writing that we all grew up with. Many of my writer friends don't even own a desk; they live in small homes and they do their best work in a laptop on their bed, the subway, the toilet. And writing isn't just about books, anyway. It's about storytelling. It’s screenplays, podcasts, IG captions. It’s The Moth, Modern Love, anonymous victim statements turned bestselling memoirs. It's finding the words to match with the memories and making alchemy from them, it's about discipline and a complete lack of discipline, it's about solitude and also community and showing up on the page again and again and again and trusting it can take the pain.

Twenty plus years of working as a magazine writer and editor, published author, entrepreneur, MFA grad and reformed party girl turned (sometimes) seeker have helped me to develop a interactive creative curriculum rooted in old-school narrative craft mixed with some psychedelic spiritual goodness and a solid grasp of the zeitgeist that works! By embracing patience, messiness, interconnectedness and a consistent writing practice, BWC students produce robust, well-nourished manuscripts that elevate their personal and professional paths.

I believe that the writing process should be magical, expansive and joyful. The BWC community is a rigorous, non-academic space grounded in imagination and radical empathy. Our classes are designed to fire up your five senses, activate your short + long term memory, teach some technical tricks along the way and tap your truth and flow. All you need is an open mind and heart.

xx Molly Rosen, August 13, 2021