Writing in Public Space
Instructor
Alex Wolfe
Duration
5 weeks
Schedule
Wednesdays, 6:30–9:00pm EST (5 sessions)
September 3—October 1, 2025
Location
In-person, held in various public spaces across Lower Manhattan: sidewalks, ferry decks, the subway, parks, storefronts, among others. Specific addresses will be shared with participants. All meeting locations will be accessible by public transit. In case of inclement weather, alternative indoor locations will be provided.
Price
$350
Scholarships Available
Two reduced-tuition spots ($200) are available for students from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as those for whom the cost of the class is a barrier. These need-based scholarships will be awarded to students who share why the class feels meaningful to them and how it connects to their creative path. Applications open until August 26.
Register Here
Description
This five-week generative writing workshop uses public space as a catalyst for new material. Through everyday activities—walking, loitering, shopping, commuting—we’ll explore how movement and observation can ignite new ideas or deepen works already in motion. Public environments like sidewalks, parks, and transit systems become sites where memory, attention, and story intersect. Your own observations will form the basis for meditative episodes, digressive accounts, and stream-of-consciousness vignettes that trace the interplay between the outer world and inner life.
Each week, students will receive a small booklet with prompts and guided exercises to frame their observations and support their writing practice, both during and in between sessions.
Sessions include four parts:
- A brief conversation and thematic introduction
- Time spent gathering material through guided exercises
- A focused in-class writing period with prompts
- Sharing and discussion
This class is open to writers and artists of all levels who are curious about the relationship between attention, movement, and narrative.
We’ll draw inspiration from short, optional readings by writers like Nicholson Baker, Teju Cole, Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Olga Tokarczuk, and W.G. Sebald.
By the end of the course, you’ll leave with:
- A body of new writing
- Sharpened observational tools
- Practical strategies for gathering material
- A renewed awareness of how the world around you can shape your creative practice
Syllabus
- Week 1 — Recollecting
Class overview, introductions, and show and tell. We will discussion writing techniques and strategies for generating material.
- Week 2 — Walking
Movement through the landscape as a guide for writing and thought.
- Week 3 — Loitering
Hanging out in public space as a means of generating writing and deep noticing.
- Week 4 — Browsing
How shopping, browsing, and objects serve as prompts for memory, internal dialogue, and narrative.
- Week 5 — Commuting
The boredom of transit, its constraints, and the writing it can produce.
Register Here
Alex Wolfe is a writer and artist from Iowa. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, and his work is held in the collections of the New York Public Library and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. He is the former editor of Pedestrian, a magazine for people who like to walk, and his projects have been featured in Grist, Untapped Journal, and NPR.
He has led workshops and guest lectured for Princeton University, the Swiss Institute, the Municipal Art Society of New York, and Parsons School of Design. He writes the newsletter Pedestrian and is currently at work on his debut novel, Repeater.