What makes prose feel alive?
In this four-week class, we’ll focus on writing prose that is vivid, precise, and emotionally resonant. Rather than relying on explanation, we’ll explore how image, detail, voice, and structure can carry meaning.
This class is especially suited for writers who want to move away from over-explaining and toward more powerful, image-driven writing. We’ll look at short fiction and creative nonfiction that uses compression, silence, and strong sensory detail to create impact.
Each week, we’ll study a different craft focus:
• image over explanation
• sentence as movement
• compression and cutting
• voice and emotional restraint
Through close reading, short exercises, and generative prompts, you’ll produce new work and begin to see how to shape prose that feels immediate and necessary.
This is a generative class with optional sharing and light feedback. Writers of fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid forms are all welcome.
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Outcomes
By the end of this class, students will:
• Write new prose pieces each week
• Learn how to replace abstraction with image
• Develop stronger, more intentional sentences
• Practice compression and cutting for clarity and impact
• Build confidence in voice-driven, image-based storytelling
• Leave with multiple drafts that can be revised or expanded
Sabina Khan-Ibarra is a Pashtun American poet, writer, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is Director of Rooted & Written at The Writers Grotto, a tuition-free fellowship supporting writers of color. She teaches at The Writers Grotto, Litquake’s Elder Project, and San Diego Writers Ink. Her work explores language, memory, displacement, and the complexities of being “othered” in America, and has appeared in journals such as Anomaly Literary, Rising Phoenix, and iO Literary. She teaches generative, craft-focused classes that center image, compression, and emotional resonance, helping writers deepen their voice and sharpen their work.