SCHEDULE: 4 Sundays • 12:00–2:00 PM ET • December 6–27, 2026 • Live on Zoom
EARLY BIRD: Register by October 11 and save $100.
What if the monster is the heroine?
Across myth, folklore, and literature, women have long been cast as monsters. Medusa is blamed instead of believed. Witches are persecuted. Vampires become symbols of dangerous female desire. Werewolves embody fears of women's bodies, appetites, and transformation. These stories reveal as much about cultural anxieties surrounding women as they do about the monsters themselves.
In this four-week generative writing course, we'll pair contemporary essays, poems, and fiction with mythic monsters to discover how today's writers are reclaiming these ancient stories in surprising and deeply personal ways. Together, we'll explore Barbara Creed's groundbreaking concept of the monstrous feminine before moving into modern reimaginings of Medusa, vampires, and werewolves through the work of Jess Zimmerman, Caroline M. Yoachim, Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, and others.
Each week combines close reading, lively discussion, and generative writing prompts designed to help you enter into conversation with these myths. Whether you choose to retell, reimagine, or radically transform them, you'll discover what they reveal about your own creative obsessions.
Week 1: Becoming Monstrous
We begin with Barbara Creed's influential theory of the monstrous feminine alongside contemporary poetry, asking how cultures decide who is "too much." Together we'll explore the stories that shape our ideas of monstrosity and begin asking what our monsters might already know.
Week 2: Medusa — The Gaze
Who gets looked at? Who gets feared? Through Jess Zimmerman's reimagining of Medusa, we'll examine the politics of visibility, reclaim inherited narratives, and write toward the power of returning the gaze.
Week 3: Vampires — Hunger
What are you hungry for? Moving beyond bloodlust, we'll explore the vampire as a figure of artistic ambition, longing, desire, and appetite through Caroline M. Yoachim's unforgettable story Colors of the Immortal Palette.
Week 4: Werewolves — Transformation
Who are you becoming? Through the fierce, transformative fiction of Angela Carter and Amber Sparks, we'll explore shapeshifting, instinct, and the liberating possibilities of refusing domestication.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS
Generate four new drafts or refine works-in-progress through in-class prompts.
Receive detailed feedback from Dr. Anzalone and your peers in a supportive community.
Discover craft techniques for reimagining myths and writing complex, unforgettable monstrous characters across genres.
Whether you write poetry, fiction, memoir, lyric essays, or work across genres, this class invites you to explore the monster not as something to defeat, but as a figure who reveals the stories cultures tell about women—and what becomes possible when we begin to rewrite them.
Please note: A $1 shipping fee is included to enable installment payments through Klarna. No physical materials will be shipped.
SCHEDULE: 4 Sundays • 12:00–2:00 PM ET • December 6–27, 2026 • Live on Zoom
EARLY BIRD: Register by October 11 and save $100.
What if the monster is the heroine?
Across myth, folklore, and literature, women have long been cast as monsters. Medusa is blamed instead of believed. Witches are persecuted. Vampires become symbols of dangerous female desire. Werewolves embody fears of women's bodies, appetites, and transformation. These stories reveal as much about cultural anxieties surrounding women as they do about the monsters themselves.
In this four-week generative writing course, we'll pair contemporary essays, poems, and fiction with mythic monsters to discover how today's writers are reclaiming these ancient stories in surprising and deeply personal ways. Together, we'll explore Barbara Creed's groundbreaking concept of the monstrous feminine before moving into modern reimaginings of Medusa, vampires, and werewolves through the work of Jess Zimmerman, Caroline M. Yoachim, Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, and others.
Each week combines close reading, lively discussion, and generative writing prompts designed to help you enter into conversation with these myths. Whether you choose to retell, reimagine, or radically transform them, you'll discover what they reveal about your own creative obsessions.
Week 1: Becoming Monstrous
We begin with Barbara Creed's influential theory of the monstrous feminine alongside contemporary poetry, asking how cultures decide who is "too much." Together we'll explore the stories that shape our ideas of monstrosity and begin asking what our monsters might already know.
Week 2: Medusa — The Gaze
Who gets looked at? Who gets feared? Through Jess Zimmerman's reimagining of Medusa, we'll examine the politics of visibility, reclaim inherited narratives, and write toward the power of returning the gaze.
Week 3: Vampires — Hunger
What are you hungry for? Moving beyond bloodlust, we'll explore the vampire as a figure of artistic ambition, longing, desire, and appetite through Caroline M. Yoachim's unforgettable story Colors of the Immortal Palette.
Week 4: Werewolves — Transformation
Who are you becoming? Through the fierce, transformative fiction of Angela Carter and Amber Sparks, we'll explore shapeshifting, instinct, and the liberating possibilities of refusing domestication.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS
Generate four new drafts or refine works-in-progress through in-class prompts.
Receive detailed feedback from Dr. Anzalone and your peers in a supportive community.
Discover craft techniques for reimagining myths and writing complex, unforgettable monstrous characters across genres.
Whether you write poetry, fiction, memoir, lyric essays, or work across genres, this class invites you to explore the monster not as something to defeat, but as a figure who reveals the stories cultures tell about women—and what becomes possible when we begin to rewrite them.
Please note: A $1 shipping fee is included to enable installment payments through Klarna. No physical materials will be shipped.
