UPCOMING COURSE OFFERINGS

• The Art and Craft of Personal Writing: A Summer Creative Writing Class Series Open to All (In-Person)

  • 4 classes beginning Sunday, August 3rd, 1-3 PM

    • Writing from the Heart (8/3)

    • Family Matters (8/9)

    • Coming of Age Stories (8/23)

    • Tributes to the Deceased (8/30)

• Course description: Explore your life stories this summer – the people, places, and moments that made you who you are – in a supportive group setting with local award-winning professor and SUNY New Paltz Writer-in-Residence, Dina Peone. Prompts will be provided and sharing is optional. Come for one class or stay for all four at a 10% discount!

  • Register here by August 1.

• The Trouble with Trauma: A Creative Exploration Series for Storytellers (online) - SOLD OUT / Contact me to get on the waitlist

  • 6 classes beginning Wednesday, June 24, 2026 through July 29, 7-9 PM ET

  • Course description: This artist-centered workshop is for anyone who wants to make something beautiful, meaningful, or purposeful from a difficult life experience through storytelling. Students will guide themselves and each other through a series of creative prompts and conversations about original works in progress. Each week we will produce one page of writing, read inspiring published essays together, and draft artist statements, tracking process. Emphasis will be placed on feelings and ideas that drive a narrative closer to its center as understood by the writer, nurturing curiosity and confidence in freedom of expression. Paramount to our success will be an atmosphere of mutual support, respect, and confidentiality. By the end of the course, each student will leave with a piece of writing that feels both true to their experience and imbued with possibility.

    Note: this class will focus on troubleshooting elements of craft and the creative process; it is not intended to be a substitute for therapy.

  • Read more about this course from students at SUNY New Paltz

NEW - Dancing Out the Words: from the body to the page (in-person writing/dance class with limited seating)

• Explore your carnal wisdom through experimental movement as a vessel for storytelling.

• Friday, August 7th, 2026 from 6 to 8 PM

• 168 Cornell Street, Kingston, NY 12401

• Buy tickets here

• Course description: If we could slow down and listen, what stories would your body tell? What poses, gestures, and movements might give way to poems, dramatic monologues, and memoirs waiting to be born? We all carry invisible experiences that long for physical expression, so let's together create a safe, nonjudgmental, intimate space where we might begin to process, and maybe even celebrate, some of these unheard truths. This class is perfect for any writer who is interested in exploring how elements of dance and theater could infuse their creative practice and shift resistance toward freedom. Sometimes the words don't come easily; we must allow them to pass through us as if by accident. Local award-winning professor, writer, and performance artist Dina Peone is here for these words, and she will guide a total of six students through this special event using an approach that is both trauma-informed and artist-centered.

  • Accessibility note: Enter through the mint door and climb the stairs to the second floor. Straight down the hall, you will find Studio 2F. Alternative accessible locations and dates are soon to be announced.