Poetry Workshop / John Skoyles
John creates a remarkably friendly atmosphere in his workshop – remarkable because so much serious work gets done. This is the place to take your poems to the next level, because there is so much focus on revision and criticism. You won’t learn how to write poems; you’ll learn how to make the ones you’ve already written better. The only downside is the intense discussion of each poem leaves you with time to only submit five or six throughout the semester, but those half dozen works will come out much improved. John himself is supremely approachable and is always happy to talk to you about any poetic subject you wish, and he will lend you (more like force you to take) books from his giant library. He ends the class by looking at a packet of your revisions and writing you a detailed letter of constructive criticism. Highly recommended for all poets.

Book Publicity / Lissa Warren
I didn’t know what I was getting into with Book Publicity, but I am very glad I got into it. Lissa literally wrote THE book on publicity for authors, and she is a master of basically everything regarding media relations. This class will help you whether you’re working for Penguin, Gawker.com or a non-profit communications department. You have to know how to get free exposure for what you produce! Lissa takes a thorough, methodical approach to the topic. You definitely get every bit of insight and knowledge she has. This is probably the most valuable class, along with copyediting, you can take at Emerson. You’ll find yourself mentioning this training and experience on all your resumes, and you will have a nice portfolio of press releases and press packets to show employers. Plus, Lissa is hilarious and ridiculously fun, on top of being an all-knowing publicity maven.

Magazine Design / Lisa Diercks
Lisa’s magazine design class teaches more than magazine design. It’s really an introduction to everything physical about a magazine, and the aesthetic choices you need to make not only as the designer of a magazine, but as a publisher or editor. The class is almost entirely focused on the magazine you “start up”, which you will design 20 pages of, including the cover. So it’s important that you pick a topic you’ll enjoy designing! One important note: this is NOT a computer-training class; class time is not spent teaching you how to use InDesign or Photoshop. Lisa will help you with these at any point after class, and she posts a big pile of her tutorials online, but if you are a total novice when it comes to computer graphics you will have to be brave (i.e. ready to commit extra time) to take this course. Lisa is fun and very intense – you don’t mess around much in class. She is also one of those people with a plethora of job contacts, so it’s good to be her friend.

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