Summer Prose Workshop
July 12 — August 30, 2025

(Sold out)

About the workshop

Want to see how your pages are landing with other readers? Feel like you need to get out of your own head? Want to become a better editor of both your own work and other people’s writing? This summer prose workshop is a great place to do all of these things!

In this workshop, you’ll be turning in up to 30 pages (or about 8,000 words) of a prose project (this could be an excerpt from a novel you’ve been working on for years, or a brand new essay, and anything in between: a short story, a novella, a memoir, etc). You’ll be receiving editorial feedback and line edits from everyone in the class in addition to a discussion about the work. We’ll be discussing craft issues like clarity, precision, structure, and narrative momentum, in addition to more practical issues like writing routines, reading recommendations, and publishing resources.

By the time you leave this workshop, you’ll have all the feedback and tools you need—you’ll have interrogated your own writing in addition to sharpening your skills as an editor. Plus, I run a tight ship—classes are organized and encouraging, but also rigorous and challenging.

Timing, absences, and recordings

Each class will be held on Saturday from 10AM-12PM Pacific / 1-3PM Eastern. There are seven class meetings, beginning on July 12 and ending on August 30, 2025, with no class on August 2.

Class #1: July 12
Class #2: July 19
Class #3: July 26
(No class on August 2)
Class #4: August 9
Class #5: August 16
Class #6: August 23
Class #7: August 30

Absences are allowed, but I am asking that every writer enrolled in the workshop agree to turn in their letters and line edits to each writer on time, regardless of whether or not they are in class that day.

Each workshop will be recorded and shared with the class.

All experience levels welcome

If you’ve never written an editorial letter before, I will teach you how to write a great one. If you’ve never been in a workshop before, this will be a welcoming environment combined with work designed to challenge your editorial skills. If your pages are brand new and unedited, that’s just as useful here as your pages being years in the making. We’re editing it all, and we’re learning that genre is mainly just a marketing tool—the fundamentals of a great story don’t rely on its categorization.

This class is limited to 10 writers in order to preserve an intimate setting with enough time to dive deeply into each writer’s manuscript. You’ll be reading about 50-60 pages per week and writing two editorial letters per week.

Testimonials

“You are going to think you don't have time for a workshop like this; you are going to think that it sounds like a lot of work not specific enough to your own writing; you are going to think that it could be too intimidating to put your writing out there in this way. And you are going to be wrong on all three counts. In a Chelsea workshop, the time feels usefully spent and therefore flies. I blinked and our 6 week session had ended. And as Chelsea says at the outset, all writing you do, including response letters to other peoples' writing, ends up being useful and related to your own work. I found editing others' work to be more generative to my own writing than a prompt-based approach. Meanwhile Chelsea, the most lovely and generous citizen of the literary world, informs the tenor of the group such that it is anything but intimidating. While this workshop would be worth it just to get a response letter and line edits from Chelsea, you'll get the same from a group of thoughtful, supportive writers and new friends. This is the very best thing that could happen to your writing.”
—Jen Murphy Parker

“I left Chelsea’s workshop with a much clearer sense of how to refine my novel’s opening pages. Her feedback helped me identify where my piece lagged and gave me the confidence to embrace its eccentricities rather than smooth them out or diminish their impact—a pitfall I’ve encountered in other workshops. I’m grateful that Chelsea was the kind of reader that was able to understand my intentions and support making the work better. I now feel more confident in my pages and ready to apply to writing workshops and residencies!”
—Evander S.

“Chelsea’s workshop is superb. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to hone their manuscript. It's hands-down the most organized and efficient workshop I've participated in, not to mention the best value in terms of tangible and thought-provoking takeaways. The feedback I received from both Chelsea and the other participants was invaluable, as was the indirect inspiration that always accompanies reading others’ work.”
—Rebecca Haller

More about Chelsea

I am the author of the essay collection Tonight I’m Someone Else, I am the publisher and editor of the independent press Rose Books, I am the founder of the Morning Writing Club, and I have been teaching and editing for over 10 years.