Learn with Lambda
Learn with Lambda is a new Lambda Literary program put in place to ensure LGBTQ+ writers have access to literary arts pedagogy and community throughout the year.
We offer our community access to panels, craft workshops, and meetings with publishing professionals in order to uplift LGBTQ+ writers’ work and grow their writing careers.
Learn with Lambda in 2023
Embodying Queer Stories: An 8-Week Writing Workshop
Weekly on Wednesdays July 12-August 30, 2023
7:00 PM EST – 9:00 PM EST
Informed by the blueprint set forth in Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, this eight-week course is open to 13 LGBTQIA+ writers who seek to center the embodied experience of their characters, regardless of the genre of their work.* The world is shaped by patriarchal white supremacist power structures, and the traditional workshop table is no different. It’s time to change that. It’s time to write our stories in our voices. Writing through the body is key. When we write through the body, we pay attention to what happens inside of us when we experience trauma and its aftershocks. When we write through the body, we pick up a pen and paper and let our words pour out, unfiltered. Writing through the body is an act of resistance. Let’s build a collaborative and supportive community of LGBTQIA+ writers. Our stories are life-giving and life-saving, but, unfortunately, even as Pride has been co-opted by rainbow capitalism, our stories are still marginalized. Whether you are a seasoned workshop participant or have never attended a workshop before, all are welcome. Together, we will create a space to share our work that is safe, constructive and inspiring.
Tuition: Sliding scale from $500-$695
About the Instructor:
Jenni Milton is a writer whose fiction aims to center the embodied experience of queer people. Her work is as much focused on how we navigate trauma and mental illness as it is on how we insist on love and joy in a world that is increasingly hostile toward us. Born in Rochester, NY, she studied at Connecticut College, Oxford University and the Columbia Publishing Course. After graduating, she worked in book and magazine publishing at One Story, Oxford University Press, and Grove Atlantic. She earned her MFA at the Programs in Writing at UC Irvine, where she taught composition, fiction writing and literary journalism. In her final year of the program, she was Fiction Editor of the Pushcart Prize-winning journal Faultline. She now works as a copywriter, teaches for Blue Stoop, volunteers at H&H Books, and plays violin with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the Roxborough Orchestra. She has published work in Juked and A Distant Memory Zine, has a story forthcoming with RipRap Journal, and is working on a novel.
Lambda Literary strives to host inclusive, accessible events. Closed captioning will be available for all attendees. If you would like to request an ASL Interpreter, please email Lambda Literary’s Program Manager, Chloe Feffer, at learnwithlambda@lambdaliterary.org.
Past Learn with Lambda Events
Writing Messy Characters: 2 Day Boot Camp
Saturday, March 12th & Saturday, March 19th 2022
8:00 am PT – 11:00 am ET
11:00 am ET – 2:00 p.m. ET This Block
In this 3-hour, two-day class led by Milo Todd, we’ll look at “good” messy queers, “bad” messy queers, stereotypes, redemption, interiority, and mainstream media representations. Along with a lecture segment, we’ll also take time to discuss some common anxieties when writing a complex queer character, brainstorm craft elements for your story, and engage in some writing exercises.
Tuition: $150.00
Limited Partial Scholarships available. To request a partial scholarship, please email admin@lambdaliterary.org
Milo Todd’s fiction focuses on trans history, the trans experience, and the trans body. His work has appeared in SLICE Magazine, Response Magazine, Foglifter Journal, Home is Where You Queer Your Heart, Emerge: The 2019 Lambda Fellows Anthology, Writer Unboxed, Dead Darlings, GrubWrites, Everyday Feminism, and more. He was selected for the 2021 Tin House Winter Workshop, received a 2021 Monson Arts residency, was a 2020 Pitch Wars Mentee, a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Fiction, and a 2016 Pechet Fellow for the Novel Incubator Program. He’s an Assistant Fiction Editor for Foglifter Journal and a Fiction Reader for Split Lip Magazine. He can be found at www.milotodd.com.
Lambda Literary strives to host inclusive, accessible events. Closed captioning will be available for all attendees. If you would like to request an ASL Interpreter, please email Lambda Literary’s Program Coordinator, Molly Thornton, at Admin@LambdaLiterary.org.
Finding an Agent for Your Fiction LGBTQ Book
featuring
Sonali Chanchani, Serene Hakim, Kiana “Kiki” Nguyen, Rebecca Podos, & Kent Wolf
moderated by Nicole Shawan Junior
Pre-Recorded
Watch this previously recorded interactive discussion to help LGBTQ+ fiction writers find an agent and learn how to navigate the publishing process. This panel provides key guidance on how literary agents work with writers to get published and make a living. Panelists offer practical tools on traversing the publishing process. This panel is for those interested in being published by both small and big publishing houses.
Tuition: $30.00
Finding an Agent for Your Nonfiction LGBTQ Book
featuring
Robert Guinsler, Christina Morgan, Patrick Munnelly, & Ayla Zuraw-Friedland
moderated by Nicole Shawan Junior
Pre-Recorded
Watch this previously recorded interactive discussion to help LGBTQ+ nonfiction writers find an agent and learn how to navigate the publishing process. This panel will provide key guidance on how literary agents work with writers to get published and make a living. Panelists will offer practical tools on traversing the publishing process. This panel is for those interested in being published by both small and big publishing houses.
Tuition: $30.00
