195 Best Fiction Writing Classes in 2026

In-person workshop in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, $900 with an $850 rate for returning writers, taught by novelist and playwright Ledia Xhoga. Eight Thursday evenings from 17 September 2026, 7:00-9:00pm. Selective: a writing sample is required at application, and prior workshop experience is expected. Class time goes on in-depth discussion of student work with detailed written feedback for each writer.

In-person workshop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, $900 with a $50 discount for returning writers, taught by Erin Crosby Eckstine. Eight Thursday evenings from the week of 10 September 2026, 7:00-9:00pm. Generative rather than critique-only: students write new work in and out of class from prompts, then develop it. No writing sample required, which makes it the most accessible of Sackett’s in-person fiction classes.

In-person course in Manhattan, $490 plus a $25 once-per-term registration fee, taught by Philip Cioffari. Ten Tuesday evenings from 8 September 2026, 6:30-9:30pm at Gotham headquarters, 555 8th Avenue between 37th and 38th. Grounding in fiction craft across both short stories and novels, ending with a completed short story. Class size capped at 14. Gotham runs the same course online and on Zoom - this is the NYC in-person section specifically.

Free in-person class in Kansas City, Wednesday 30 September 2026, at Kansas City Public Library. Part of the library’s Writers for Readers season, taught each week during the school year by Master of Fine Arts candidates from UMKC’s creative writing and media arts programme - this term Vicente Martinez and Rachelle Gardner-Roe. Covers how a story is built: shape, sequence and where the weight falls. Free, RSVP required, no payment at any stage. Renewed from the expired ‘Beginning A Novel’ listing, which the library no longer runs.

In-person conference in Atlanta, 6-7 November 2026, at the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel. The Atlanta Writers Club’s twice-yearly conference: manuscript and query critiques with literary agents and editors, pitch sessions, and craft workshops across two days. Run by a club founded in 1914 with around 1,600 members, so the agent roster is a genuine draw rather than a token panel. Booking is per-activity, so cost depends on how many critiques and pitches you add.

In-person monthly meeting in Atlanta, free for first-time attendees and covered by membership thereafter. Saturday 19 September 2026, 1:30-4:00pm with a mixer from 12:45, at GSU-Perimeter College Dunwoody Campus, Bldg. NC. Two craft sessions in one afternoon: Leah Keggi on marketing yourself and your books, and Carla Hoch on writing fight scenes from the practical to the tactical. The free-for-first-timers policy makes this the cheapest way to test a writing community in Atlanta.

In-person series in Cincinnati, $110 ($85 for CAC members or students), at the Contemporary Arts Center. Four Saturday mornings, 3 to 24 October 2026, 10:00am-12:00pm, sold as a series rather than single sessions. Each series is taught by a rotating group of local and published writers and moves across poetry, nonfiction and prose rather than sticking to one form. Class size is capped for individual attention, and a notebook of guided prompts is included. Winter (Feb) and spring (Apr) 2027 series dates are already published.

In-person retreat mornings in Cincinnati, $100, at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. Four standalone Saturday dates - 19 September, 10 October, 14 November and 5 December 2026 - each running 10:00am-12:30pm, ages 18+. Each date is a self-contained half-day retreat rather than a sequence, so you can book a single morning without committing to a term. Need-based scholarships of up to $100 are available for any CCAC class via a short application.

Free in-person workshop in Cincinnati, led by Intisar Khanani. Saturday 7 November 2026, 1:00-2:30pm at the Symmes Township Branch Library. Aimed squarely at writers for whom detailed outlines and emotional beat maps make things worse: how to develop a story idea before drafting, and drafting methods that keep a plot propulsive without a plan to follow. Useful counterweight to the outline-first advice most craft classes assume. Genuinely free: no ticket, no card.

Free in-person workshop in Cincinnati, led by Intisar Khanani. Saturday 19 September 2026, 1:00-2:30pm at the Cheviot Branch Library. Despite the title this is adult craft instruction on character construction: first the forms strength takes beyond the obvious - compassion, mercy, persistence - then Gail Carriger’s heroine’s journey, a plot shape built on community and networks of allies rather than the lone hero of the traditional monomyth. Khanani is a fantasy novelist (Thorn, The Sunbolt Chronicles) and the library’s writer-in-residence. Genuinely free: no ticket, no card.

In-person novel workshop in Houston, $800, taught by Miah Arnold. Fortnightly Wednesday evenings from 30 September 2026 through 13 January 2027, 6:00-8:00pm at the Woodland Heights studio. Capped at four to five writers, and the entry condition is real: you need a complete or near-complete draft, because the whole manuscript gets read. Half of each session is discussion and prompts, half is workshop.

In-person course in Seattle, $390 (early-bird $351), taught by Alma Garcia. Six Thursday evenings, 1 October to 5 November 2026, 7:10-9:10pm at Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Capped at 15 seats. The introductory tier of the fiction sequence, covering the basic machinery - character, scene, point of view - for writers without prior workshop experience.