let’s peer over the edge of doubt
Elephant Rock is a place for making art with words and building literary community, in person and virtually. A place for teaching and learning, and for the rich and ever-expanding cross-pollination of ideas about writing and its power in the world. And we’re welcoming guest teaching artists to join us.
If you are interested in teaching a writing class through Elephant Rock, we’d love to hear from you and help you determine if your course is a good fit for us. We are especially interested in hearing from BIPOC writers and teachers, as we have a vision for a more just and equitable literary landscape and are committed to helping manifest that vision.
A few words about Elephant Rock’s classes: we value highly participatory, seminar or workshop style classes that come as close as possible to generating the energy of live, in-person classes. For this reason, we specialize in synchronous classes with dynamic, facilitated conversation. We value thoughtfully developed classes that are specific, unusual, and particular, and we celebrate teaching that is dynamic, attentive, rigorous, and inspiring.
Therefore, the kinds of classes we are most seeking will:
Focus on a specific element of the craft of literary writing and/or explore a highly specific theme, genre, or sub-genre
Be clear about what writers will take away
Include some close reading of a diverse array of published writers’ work
Be synchronous, participatory, and closely approximate in-person offerings (i.e., webinar style offerings meant to be experienced via recording and/or courses dependent upon lecture + breakout and/or courses focused on the business of writing are not good fits).
If you have an idea for an Elephant Rock class or workshop, you can can start by filling out this course proposal form. Please know that we are happy to hear new ideas even if they're just beginning to take shape, so don’t worry if you are still shaping your course. We’re here to help you with that, and can take as much time as you need to take your idea into a final form. Or maybe you have a well-developed course you already enjoy teaching, and you’d like to test that curriculum with a new audience. Let’s explore the possibilities!
All virtual courses currently take place on Zoom and are supported by Elephant Rock Mighty Networks channel, where teachers can post readings and course materials, and where students can interact between classes, upload assignments, and create and maintain community between class and long after the class is over.
If you’re ready to share a course idea, hare some examples of what you will need to have thought about in order to complete our course proposal form:
Course basics (genre, topic, angle, element of craft you'd focus on, etc.)
Whether it is generative
Whether readings will be assigned, and if so, a sampling (please be inclusive and diverse)
How many weeks and length of each class period (e.g., six consecutive Tuesday evenings, 6 — 8 PM Central)
What will students take away from the course? (see the takeaway section from a previous course description to see what we mean here)
Level (is the course for beginning, intermediate, or advanced writers, or all levels—and why?)
A brief summary of your publication history, previous teaching experience, and teaching philosophy
You will also want to think about whether students will be invited to share work and whether you will facilitate any kind of workshopping component (if so, please review this Substack post which describes some of our thoughts and values around workshopping).
If your query sounds like a good fit for Elephant Rock, we’ll work with you to continue refining your description to match the format we use for all courses on our site (a general FAQ format), which you can review here by clicking on any thumbnail, then clicking through to the course details. You’ll also likely want to peruse our current and past offerings before submitting your query.
Payment for teaching artists varies based on tuition, according to the same model Catapult uses (51% of tuition to instructors). Elephant Rock is home to an active, vibrant, and enthusiastic community, with a substantial platform on Substack and Facebook (and a more fledgling presence on Instagram and Twitter.) and we help you promote your course.
We would love to also create community among teachers. We look forward to hearing from you!