9 Best Writing Classes in Chicago

Four in-person sessions at the StoryStudio Chicago Studio with Aram Mrjoian, $315, on the visual dimension of prose - how a page looks, how white space and shape carry meaning alongside the words. Starts 29 October. A narrower brief than most prose workshops, and one that suits writers already comfortable with sentences who want to think about the page as an object.

An eight-week in-person foundation course at the StoryStudio Chicago Studio with Kathryn Kruse, $585, covering the elements common to fiction, non-fiction and poetry rather than specialising early. Starts 21 October. The genre-spanning approach makes it a sensible first course if you have not settled on a form yet, and eight weeks is long enough to build a habit rather than just sample one.

Four in-person sessions at the StoryStudio Chicago Studio with Paul Lisicky, $250, approaching memoir through sound, the body and form rather than through chronology or event. Starts 14 October. Lisicky is a widely published memoirist, and the angle here is craft-technical - useful if you have the material but the prose is going flat. Most of StoryStudio's catalogue runs on Zoom, so in-person sessions like this are the exception.

In-person single session in Chicago, $65, taught by Cyn Vargas. Monday 24 September 2026, 6:30-8:30pm at StoryStudio’s Chicago studio. Two hours on how a story is put together - where it starts, how it moves, where the weight falls. Renewed from the expired ‘Form & Content: Experimenting with Prose Structures’ listing, which StoryStudio no longer runs; this is the closest current same-provider equivalent on structure. URL moved off the generic /classes page onto the class itself.

In-person single session in Chicago, $65, taught by Jeffrey Wolf. Monday 16 November 2026, 6:30-8:30pm at StoryStudio’s Chicago studio. Place-writing with the city itself as subject - useful if you are writing Chicago into fiction or nonfiction and want it to read as somewhere specific rather than generic urban backdrop. Latest-starting in-person session in the current catalogue.

In-person single session in Chicago, $10, taught by Teresa Dzieglewicz. Thursday 1 October 2026, 6:30-8:30pm at StoryStudio’s Chicago studio. At ten dollars this is the cheapest listing on the Chicago page by a wide margin and effectively a taster: two hours of poetry writing in company, pie included. Worth flagging to anyone who thinks a writing class means a few hundred dollars.

In-person single session in Chicago, $65, taught by Dionna Griffin-Irons. Wednesday 30 September 2026, 6:30-8:30pm at StoryStudio’s Chicago studio. Two hours on building character from the writer’s own material rather than invention alone. A one-evening commitment, which makes it a low-risk way to try StoryStudio before booking a multi-week course - most of their catalogue is Zoom, so in-person sessions like this are the exception.

The conference features workshops, panel discussions, master classes, pitch sessions, and a keynote address. Attendees can participate in a cocktail party, meeting prominent writers and experts.

A one-day intensive workshop focusing on how to get published, featuring sessions on query letters, social media branding, novel writing, and self-editing. Attendees can pitch agents and receive critiques.