Welcome, Class
Your Course Catalog for Fall 2023
My four kids and I are a bundle of nerves. Two new boarding schools for my 10th graders plus the start of 3rd and 4th grade for the not-so-littles. Well, actually I’m the one with nerves. They all seem excited. I’m worried that I’ve dropped the ball on one of the eight million forms and details that are all due in the next 10 days. (Just send them on field trips! I’m fine with it!)
I feel like I’m starting a new school year, too. Over the summer, we added some amazing new women to our Zibby Media team. Okay, it wasn’t exactly like my freshman year orientation trip to Frost Valley circa 1990, but I did organize a fun retreat in the Hamptons this August so everyone could get to know each other before “work.”
Our team is starting the school year in a new office (!!) which I spent the summer setting up and decorating. (Great furniture deals at Wayfair. Obsessed with the wallpapers from Serena & Lily and Farrow & Ball.)
I’m very pleased to say our publishing house officially has a home.
Am I showing up to school looking svelte and tan? I am not. I am hobbling around with an Achilles issue and ugly tan therapeutic sleeve socks that look bad no matter what I wear. I have gained a ton of weight in the past month (see: Achilles issue and lifelong emotional eating).
My body has rebelled in many ways against the non-stop stress and full-court press of the past couple years. My schedule is filled with doctors’ appointments I’ve put off for far too long. Each one I go to requires me to make even more appointments or see new specialists to remedy issues I’ve created by ignoring regular maintenance. Not taking care of myself to save time is now taking even more time to fix — and causing a lot of pain.
Lesson learned. My first of the school year.
In honor of the school year starting we’re offering a bunch of new classes through our Zibby Classes education platform. Our workshops and seminars are taught by amazing authors and writers, adhering to our mission of deepening the connections between readers, writers, and each other. Most are online but a couple take place at Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica, CA.
We can’t go back to school or have the pain-free bodies or youthful skin of our school kids. But we can still learn. Our brains are one area we absolutely can’t afford to let atrophy. So take a look below and join us for an hour or up to eight weeks.
Who knows? It just might be the thing you were missing.
Course Catalog
Shop the books written by our author instructors.
SEPTEMBER
Sunday, September 17, 2023 12 to 2 p.m. (EST)
Class: Pitching to Get Published with Alisha Fernandez Miranda
Instructor: Alisha Fernandez Miranda, author of My What If Year: A Memoir. (Listen to our podcast here.)
September 14, 2023 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. (EST)
Class: Building Your Brand with Stacy Igel
Instructor: Stacy Igel, author of Embracing the Calm in the Chaos. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Tuesday September 26, 2023 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (EST)
Class: Wandering & Wondering: Writing Place-Based Narratives with Shelley Read
Shelley Read, author of Go As a River. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Starts Thursday, September 7, 2023 - Meets Weekly: 9/7, 9/14, 9/21, 9/28 - 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. (PT)
Class: All Things Memoir Writing Group (Hybrid Class) with Reema Zaman
Reema Zaman, I Am Yours: A Shared Memoir. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Starts: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 - Weekly: 9/5, 9/12, 9/19, 9/26, 10/3, 10/10 - 11:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. EST for 6 weeks
Class: The Writers’ Table: A 6-Week Writing Workshop
Instructor: Darcey Gohring, head of Zibby Classes, and editor/journalist with 25 years of experience
October:
Starts Tuesday, October 10, 2023 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. (EST) for 3 weeks.
Class: Rewriting Your Narrative
Instructor: Michelle Hord, author of The Other Side of Yet: Finding Light in the Midst of Darkness. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Sunday, October 1, 2023 from 12 to 2 p.m. (EST).
Class: Taking the Scary Out of the Query
Instructor: Liz Alterman, author of Sad Sacked: A Memoir. (Watch my recommendation on TV here.)
Starts Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:30 to 2 P.M. EST for 6 weeks.
Class: Writing Personal Essays and Memoir
Instructor: Darcey Gohring, head of Zibby Classes, and editor/journalist with 25 years of experience.
October 5, 2023 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (PT) - IN PERSON at Zibby’s Bookshop
Class: How to Outline Your Novel Like a TV Writer
Instructor: Danielle Roderick, TV Writer
Sunday, October 8, 2023 2 to 5 p.m. (EST)
Class: How to Add Humor into Your Personal Essays
Wendi Aarons, author of I’m Wearing Tunics Now. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Starts Monday, October 16, 2023 - Meets Weekly: 10/16, 10/23 - 6 to 7:30 p.m. (EST) for 2 weeks.
Class: From Rough Draft to Refined Masterpiece: The Art of Manuscript Editing
Instructor: Elizabeth Lyons, author of Write the Damn Book Already: Tell Your Story. Share Your Message. Make Your Impact. (Listen to our podcast here.)
Dates: TBD (probably because she’s finishing a novel herself!)
Class: How to Write a Novel
Instructor: Pamela Redmond, author of Younger, Older, and the upcoming novel The Matriarch. (Listen to our podcast here.)
I hope you’ll sign up for something. It’s about time we all did something for ourselves.
These classes all look amazing! Working on a memoir and a romance - definitely signing up!
A new office! So exciting. I hope you'll be taking visitors when you're ready :)