Glenda Reed teaches with The Loft Literary Center, COMPAS, and Minnesota State University. Previously she served as a mentor with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and now mentors privately.

“I love the class. Glenda is a gentle soul with very insightful ideas into the writing process. The lessons are well-thought-out and planned and the helpful hints are actually helpful. I will definitely take another class with her.”
— Find the Meaning in Your Memoir class participant, The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis

Foundations of Writing & Rhetoric

Minnesota State University, Mankato
16 weeks
August 22 – December 9, 2022

Foundations of Writing & Rhetoric is a process writing course. Students in this course approach writing as a subject of study by investigating how writing works across a variety of contexts. In this course, students will investigate how writing works by:

• Increasing genre awareness, rhetorical knowledge, and use of multimodalities,
• Exploring language variation and multiliteracies by context,
• Developing information literacy through primary and secondary research,
• Reflecting on writing processes and labor, and
• Collaborating to create and revise texts.

Diverse languages and dialects are welcome in this classroom. As we communicate with one another, we’re asked to keep in mind that the reader/listener is asked to work as hard as the writer/speaker in the communication process. This means we listen patiently, work to understand one another, seek out clarification when necessary, and avoid finishing each other’s sentences or correcting grammatical errors unless invited to do so.

*This statement comes from Catherine Savini’s “10 Ways to Tackle Linguistic Bias in Our Classrooms.”

“I’ve really enjoyed Glenda’s teaching style. She broke down writing in a way that doesn’t make it feel as intimidating. I’m not lying when I say writing is my biggest insecurity. Glenda’s feedback made me feel extremely validated.”
— Foundations of Writing & Rhetoric class participant, Minnesota State University, Mankato

For more info or to register:

• Visit MNSU.edu
• Call 1-800-722-0544 (MNSU general line)

Flash Memoir II: Tell the Stories of Your Life in 500 Words

COMPAS residency at Tasks Unlimited – ONLINE
6 weeks
July 15 – August 19, 2022

This follow-up residency builds on and develops ideas explored in the initial Flash Memoir residency at Tasks Unlimited in 2021, while remaining accessible to new and drop-in participants. “Flash” memoir offers a fun and low-stakes way to tell the stories of our lives. Participants may be new to writing or have been thinking about writing their life story and aren’t sure where to begin. Together we will make a lifetime timeline using memories, anecdotes, and family histories. We’ll then pick one event, memory, or moment from each participant’s timeline to write as a “Flash” memoir piece–a super-short-form true story under 500 words. We’ll read example flash memoir pieces from literary magazines, including Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and The Sun. We’ll try our hand at a 140-character Twitter memoir and 1-paragraph stories. At the end of our time together participants will have a completed flash memoir piece as well as a map to continue writing a longer work of memoir, if so desired, and resources for continued support.

Together we will:

• Create a custom timeline that follows the big and small, tragic and wondrous events in each participants’ life.
• Use guided writing exercises focused on self-compassion and kindness to help participants pick a personally meaningful subject matter to write about.
• Discuss and practice strategies for writing into insights, deeper understandings, and new ideas about our own stories.
• Discuss and practice elements of craft including story structure and plot, characterization, dramatic action, and specific detail.
• Discuss the role of anxiety in the act of creation and practice strategies for befriending our anxiety.
• Read heartfelt and poignant stories to help inspire our own work.
• Work together to create a safe and vibrant community in which participants feel comfortable sharing and discussing their writing.

At the end of the residency, GLENDA REED will work with participants to co-curate a podcast. Together, we review in-class recordings made throughout the 6-week residency and select recordings of participant readings to weave together in one 10-20 minute podcast episode.

This is a closed program.

For more info or to book a residency at your organization:

• Visit COMPAS.org
• Call 651.292.3249 (COMPAS general line)

Writing as Healing – ONLINE

The Loft Literary Center – ONLINE
6 weeks
June 23, 2021 – July 28, 2021

Give sorrow words…
~William Shakespeare

We will explore how writing can help heal our relationship to our own stories. Together, we will investigate how different aspects of craft, from specific detail to focused narrative, not only make good literature, but can help writers gain new perspectives on old stories and find a path to healing. Writing exercises are adapted from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, Writing Works: A Resource for Therapeutic Writing Workshops, and How Dare We Write!: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse edited by Sherry Quan Lee. The focus will be on generating new writing. Though we won’t be critiquing work together, we will discuss and practice editing tools to help you uncover a fuller understanding of your personal histories.

We will also discuss how writers, including D.H. Lawrence, Carmen Maria Machado, and Virginia Woolf, and others, have been transformed by the writing process.

This class is intended for writers ready to guide themselves along the path of self-healing. The instructor is not a trained mental health professional and though this class is meant to be therapeutic, it is not a substitute for therapy. Trauma survivors are encouraged to seek professional support.

Scholarships may be available.

For more info and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Write Memory: Intro to Memoir Writing – ONLINE

The Loft Literary Center – ONLINE
6 weeks
June 21, 2021 – July 26, 2021

This class is for anyone interested in exploring foundational techniques that can help bring true-life stories alive on the page. Discussions, writing exercises, and peer and instructor feedback will help beginning memoirists explore aspects of craft through the telling of your own story. We will generate new work with a focus on a different aspect of craft each week: plot and structure, characterization, conflict, setting, dialogue, and context. Each week you have the opportunity to submit up to 500 words for peer feedback. You can also submit an additional 2,000 words for feedback (line edits and an editorial letter) from the instructor.

We’ll read excerpts from recent bestselling and acclaimed memoirs, including memoirs that won or were finalists for the 2019 and 2020 National Book Award. We’ll discuss craft elements in The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir by Jenn Shapland, and How To Make a Slave and Other Essays by Jerald Walker, among other texts. We won’t be reading these books cover to cover as a class, though you are welcome to read them on your own.

Scholarships may be available.

For more info and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Flash Memoir: Tell the Stories of Your Life in 500 Words

COMPAS residency at Tasks Unlimited – ONLINE
6 weeks
December 11 2020 – January 31, 2021

“Flash” memoir offers a fun and low-stakes way to tell the stories of our lives. Participants may be new to writing or have been thinking about writing their life story and aren’t sure where to begin. Together we will make a lifetime timeline using memories, anecdotes, and family histories. We’ll then pick one event, memory, or moment from each participant’s timeline to write as a “Flash” memoir piece–a super-short-form true story under 500 words. We’ll read example flash memoir pieces from literary magazines, including Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and The Sun. We’ll try our hand at a 140-character Twitter memoir and 1-paragraph stories. At the end of our time together participants will have a completed flash memoir piece as well as a map to continue writing a longer work of memoir, if so desired, and resources for continued support.

Together we will:

• Create a custom timeline that follows the big and small, tragic and wondrous events in each participants’ life.
• Use guided writing exercises focused on self-compassion and kindness to help participants pick a personally meaningful subject matter to write about.
• Discuss and practice strategies for writing into insights, deeper understandings, and new ideas about our own stories.
• Discuss and practice elements of craft including story structure and plot, characterization, dramatic action, and specific detail.
• Discuss the role of anxiety in the act of creation and practice strategies for befriending our anxiety.
• Read heartfelt and poignant stories to help inspire our own work.
• Work together to create a safe and vibrant community in which participants feel comfortable sharing and discussing their writing.

At the end of the residency, GLENDA REED will work with participants to co-curate a podcast. Together, we review in-class recordings made throughout the 6-week residency and select recordings of participant readings to weave together in one 10-20 minute podcast episode.

This is a closed program.

For more info or to book a residency at your organization:

• Visit COMPAS.org
• Call 651.292.3249 (COMPAS general line)

Flash Memoir: Tell the Stories of Your Life in 500 Words

COMPAS residency at Walker Methodist, Levande – ONLINE
Week-long intensive
September 14 – September 18, 2020

“Flash” memoir offers a fun and low-stakes way to tell the stories of our lives. Participants may be new to writing or have been thinking about writing their life story and aren’t sure where to begin. Together we will make a lifetime timeline using memories, anecdotes, and family histories. We’ll then pick one event, memory, or moment from each participant’s timeline to write as a “Flash” memoir piece–a super-short-form true story under 500 words. We’ll read example flash memoir pieces from literary magazines, including Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and The Sun. We’ll try our hand at a 140-character Twitter memoir and 1-paragraph stories. At the end of our time together participants will have a completed flash memoir piece as well as a map to continue writing a longer work of memoir, if so desired, and resources for continued support.

Together we will:

• Create a custom timeline that follows the big and small, tragic and wondrous events in each participants’ life.
• Use guided writing exercises focused on self-compassion and kindness to help participants pick a personally meaningful subject matter to write about.
• Discuss and practice strategies for writing into insights, deeper understandings, and new ideas about our own stories.
• Discuss and practice elements of craft including story structure and plot, characterization, dramatic action, and specific detail.
• Discuss the role of anxiety in the act of creation and practice strategies for befriending our anxiety.
• Read heartfelt and poignant stories to help inspire our own work.
• Work together to create a safe and vibrant community in which participants feel comfortable sharing and discussing their writing.

At the end of the residency, GLENDA REED will work with participants to co-curate a booklet of student writing.

This is a closed program.

For more info or to book a residency at your organization:

• Visit COMPAS.org
• Call 651.292.3249 (COMPAS general line)

Writing as Healing – ONLINE

The Loft Literary Center – ONLINE
6 weeks
July 13, 2020 – August 17, 2020

Give sorrow words…
~William Shakespeare

We will explore how writing can help heal our relationship to our own stories. Together, we will investigate how different aspects of craft, from specific detail to focused narrative, not only make good literature, but can help writers gain new perspectives on old stories and find a path to healing. Writing exercises are adapted from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, Writing Works: A Resource for Therapeutic Writing Workshops, and How Dare We Write!: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse edited by Sherry Quan Lee. The focus will be on generating new writing. Though we won’t be critiquing work together, we will discuss and practice editing tools to help you uncover a fuller understanding of your personal histories.

We will also discuss how writers, including D.H. Lawrence, Carmen Maria Machado, and Virginia Woolf, and others, have been transformed by the writing process.

This class is intended for writers ready to guide themselves along the path of self-healing. The instructor is not a trained mental health professional and though this class is meant to be therapeutic, it is not a substitute for therapy. Trauma survivors are encouraged to seek professional support.

Scholarships may be available.

For more info and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Find the Meaning in Your Memoir – ONLINE

The Loft Literary Center – ONLINE
8 weeks
June 25, 2020 – Aug 13, 2020

Give sorrow words…
~William Shakespeare

We will explore how writing can help heal our relationship to our own stories. Together, we will investigate how different aspects of craft, from specific detail to focused narrative, not only make good literature, but can help writers gain new perspectives on old stories and find a path to healing. Writing exercises are adapted from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, Writing Works: A Resource for Therapeutic Writing Workshops, and How Dare We Write!: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse edited by Sherry Quan Lee. The focus will be on generating new writing. Though we won’t be critiquing work together, we will discuss and practice editing tools to help you uncover a fuller understanding of your personal histories.

We will also discuss how writers, including D.H. Lawrence, Carmen Maria Machado, and Virginia Woolf, and others, have been transformed by the writing process.

This class is intended for writers ready to guide themselves along the path of self-healing. The instructor is not a trained mental health professional and though this class is meant to be therapeutic, it is not a substitute for therapy. Trauma survivors are encouraged to seek professional support.

Scholarships may be available.

For more info and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Write Memory: Intro to Memoir Writing – ONLINE

The Loft Literary Center – ONLINE
6 weeks
March 4 – April 15, 2020

This class is for anyone interested in exploring foundational storytelling techniques to bring true-life stories alive on the page. Discussions, writing exercises, and peer and instructor feedback will help beginning memoirists explore aspects of craft through the telling of your own story. We will generate new work with a focus on a different aspect of craft each week: plot and structure, characterization, conflict, setting, dialogue, and context. Each week you have the opportunity to submit up to 500 words for peer feedback. You can submit an additional 2,000 words for feedback (line edits and an editorial letter) from the instructor.

We will read excerpts from old and new classic craft books including The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, How Dare We Write! edited by Sherry Quan Lee as well as excerpts from recent bestselling memoirs including All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth by Rigoberto Gonzalez, Educated by Tara Weston. We will not be reading these books cover to cover as a class, though you are welcome to read them on your own.

Scholarships may be available.

For more info and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Write & Publish Your Memoir

September 19–December 12, 2019
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Loft Literary Center
1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55415
12 Weeks

From picking up a pen to publication, this class will help you draft and revise a short essay or book chapter and create a targeted publishing strategy that best fits your work. This class is for anyone interested in exploring foundational storytelling techniques to help bring true-life stories alive on the page and get your stories out into the world.

We’ll read new and classic craft books, including The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, How Dare We! Write edited by Sherry Quan Lee and discuss what makes great literature. We’ll learn from the latest bestsellers by examining excerpts from All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth by Rigoberto Gonzalez, and Educated by Tara Weston, among others.

Discussions, writing exercises, and peer and instructor feedback are all geared to help you write and publish your story. We’ll generate new work with a focus on a different aspect of craft each week: plot and structure, characterization, conflict, setting, dialogue, context, and more. You’ll have the opportunity to submit work weekly for peer feedback and to submit up to 2,000 words for teaching artist feedback.

No class 11/28.

Scholarships may be available.

Questions and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Writing as Healing

September 18 – October 23, 2019
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Hopkins Center for the Arts (Loft Around Town Site)
1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins, MN 55343
6 Weeks

Give sorrow words?
~William Shakespeare

We will explore how writing can help heal our relationship to our own stories. Together, we will investigate how different aspects of craft, from specific detail to focused narrative, not only make good literature, but can help writers gain new perspectives on old stories and find a path to healing. Writing exercises are adapted from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, Writing Works: A Resource for Therapeutic Writing Workshops, and How Dare We! Write: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse edited by Sherry Quan Lee. The focus will be on generating new writing. Though we won’t be critiquing work together, we will discuss and practice editing tools to help you uncover a fuller understanding of your personal histories.

We will also discuss how writers, including Isabel Allende, Scott Fitzgerald, Audre Lorde, Virginia Woolf, and many others, have been transformed by the writing process.

This class is intended for writers ready to guide themselves along the path of self-healing. The teaching artist is not a trained mental health professional and though this class is meant to be therapeutic, it is not a substitute for therapy. Trauma survivors are encouraged to seek professional support.

Scholarships may be available.

Questions and to sign up:

• Call 612-379-8999 (Loft education line)
• Email info@loft.org
• Visit Loft.org

Write Memory: Intro to Memoir Writing

Saturday, June 8th, 2019 – 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 – 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fergus Falls Public Library
205 E. Hampden Ave Fergus Falls, MN 56537

Perhaps you have a memory you’d like to write down, but you’re not sure how to begin, or you’ve always wanted to write a book. This writing workshop is for anyone interested in exploring foundational storytelling techniques that can help bring true-life stories alive on the page. In-class discussions and writing exercises will help beginning to advanced writers delve into your own stories.

Session 1
Saturday, June 8
10:00 am – 12:00 pm 
Focus: Structure Your Story

Session 2
Wednesday, June 12
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Focus: People & Characters in Your Story

Workshop sessions can be taken together or as a single-session, drop-in class.

FREE

To register visit SpringboardfortheArts.org

This program is a partnership with the Fergus Falls Public Library, Viking Library System, and Springboard for the Arts. This project was funded in part or in whole with monies from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.

Write Memory: Intro to Memoir Writing – ONLINE

Online class with the Loft Literary Center
6 weeks
June 19th – July 31st, 2019

This class is for anyone interested in exploring foundational storytelling techniques that can help bring true-life stories alive on the page. Discussions, writing exercises, and peer and teaching artist feedback will help you explore aspects of craft through the telling of your own story. We will generate new work with a focus on a different aspect of craft each week: plot and structure, characterization, conflict, setting, dialogue, and context. Each week you have the opportunity to submit up to 500 words for peer and instructor feedback and participate in a live chat. By the end of class, you have the opportunity to receive feedback on an additional 2,000 words.

We will read excerpts from old and new classic craft books including The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, How Dare We Write! edited by Sherry Quan Lee as well as excerpts from recent bestselling memoirs including All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth by Rigoberto Gonzalez, Educated by Tara Weston. We will not be reading these books cover to cover as a class, though you are welcome to read them on your own.

To register visit Loft.org

Low income tuition and scholarships available

Find the Meaning in Your Memoir

8 Weeks
June 19th – Agust 14th, 2019
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Loft Literary Center
1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Memoir is more than writing down a sequence of events. You know what happened, but what is your story about? And how do you get the perspective to answer this question? In this class, discussions and writing exercises as well as peer and teaching artist feedback will help you explore the question: what is my memoir really about?

We will borrow fiction writing techniques to audit the secret motivations of your memoir’s main “character” and explore that character’s ultimate change. We will discuss the secret motivations and deeper meaning in memoirs such as Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie. We will not be reading these books cover to cover, but rather discussing their overall plots and reading excerpts when appropriate.

Writing exercises as well as peer and teaching artist feedback will focus on guiding you to a deeper understanding of the meaning of your story. Class time will be split roughly in half between writing exercises and workshopping. The goal of the class is to help you find an increased awareness of your own memoir and to provide you with tools to continue to plumb the depths of your story beyond the end of the class. Whether you have an idea for a memoir, but haven’t started writing, have writing you’d like to shape into an essay or book, or have a completed manuscript that lacks a deeper meaning behind the sequence of events—this class is intended to help you uncover truths latent in your own story. Class participants need not have a completed manuscript, but should have an idea in mind.

To sign up visit Loft.org

Low income tuition and scholarships available

Find the Meaning in Your Memoir

Saturday, October 14th, 2017
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Loft Literary Center
1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Memoir is more than writing down a sequence of events. You know what happened, but what is your story about? And how do you get the perspective to answer this question? Through a series of in-class writing exercises, we will perform in-depth self-inquiry to explore the question: what is my memoir really about?

In this one-day session, students will borrow from fiction techniques to audit the secret motivations of their memoir’s main “character.” Students will write an elevator pitch for their memoir and then use these few sentences to launch into an exploration of the main “character’s” motivations, secrets, and ultimate change. We will discuss the secret motivations in memoirs such as Wild, H is for Hawk, and This Boy’s Life. Writing exercises are designed to guide students deeper into the personal meaning of their own story. The goal of the class is to help students find an increased understanding of their own memoir, and to provide students with the tools to continue to plumb the depths of their own story. Students need not have a completed manuscript, but should have an idea in mind.

To sign up visit Loft.org

Writing as Healing Workshop Series

Four Thursdays in November 2017: 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/30
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Women’s Woodshop
2237 E 38th St, Minneapolis, MN 55407

In this four-week workshop series for beginning to advanced women, trans, and femme writers, participants will explore how writing can help heal one’s relationship to one’s own stories. Each two-hour workshop session will include discussions and in-class writing exercises. Exercises will be drawn from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing and Writing Works: A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and Activities, among other books, as well as from my own writing practice. We will discuss how writers from Virginia Woolf to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Audre Lorde have been transformed by the writing process. Workshop sessions are designed to build off one another and can also be taken as a single-session, drop-in class.

Date and Time:
Thursday, Nov 02, 7-9:00pm – Workshop I: The Health and Emotional Benefits of Writing
Thursday, Nov 09, 7-9:00pm – Workshop II: Qualities of a Healing Narrative
Thursday, Nov 16, 7-9:00pm – Workshop III: Caring for Ourselves as We Write
Thursday, Nov 30, 7-9:00pm – Workshop IV: Preparing, Planning, Germinating

Cost: Each workshops is offered in exchange for a $5-$50 suggested admission.

To sign up register: Here

Writing as Healing 

Friday, November 17th, 2017
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Future
2223 E 35th St, Minneapolis, MN 55407

This workshop is the public component of The Future’s Artist Residency program. In this workshop participants will explore how writing can help us heal our relationship to our own stories. Discussions and writing exercises will be drawn from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing and Writing Works: A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and Activities, among other sources. This workshop is open to all writers at any level, including those interested in getting started writing and writers who have been working for years. Please bring a notebook or paper and pen or pencil. $5-$50 sliding scale suggested admission.

Writing as Healing

A Writing Workshops Series at the Fergus Falls Public Library
1505 Pebble Lake Road, Fergus Falls, MN 56537

In these workshops we will explore how writing can help heal one’s relationship to one’s own stories. In-class writing exercises will be drawn from Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, among other sources. We will discuss how writers from Virginia Woolf to Henry Miller to Audre Lorde have been transformed by the writing process. Workshops are open to all writers at any level, including those interested in getting started writing and writers who have been working for years. Workshop sessions can be taken as a five-session intensive or a single-session, drop-in class. All sessions are FREE and open to the public. These workshops are part of the Hinge Arts Residency supported by Springboard for the Arts.

Glenda Reed says, “I write and teach writing workshops because, in the words of Janine Shepherd, ‘When we share our stories, what it does is, it opens up our hearts for other people to share their stories. And it gives us the sense that we are not alone on this journey.’”

This is a Hinge Arts project supported by Springboard for the Arts. Hinge Arts at the Kirkbride is an artist residency program that was launched in 2015 to engage artists and community members in the past and future of the Kirkbride Building in Fergus Falls.

NOTE: All Writing as Healing workshops at the Fergus Falls Public Library are FREE and open to the public. Workshop sessions can be taken as a five-session intensive or a single-session, drop-in class.

Writing as Resistance