Commonplace School

Current Course

Reading with Rachel

This course is for anyone who wants to listen to Rachel talk about 12 new books, and for anyone who wants to read, write and/or talk about books in a supportive and open community. No previous writing or reading experience is necessary.

Class meets (on Zoom) on the last Tuesday of every month.

Recent Classes

  • A Reading, Writing & Talking Experience with Rachel Zucker

    This 10-week online class is for anyone who loves to read and talk, for anyone who makes things or wants to talk about the ethical consequences of making things. Our primary shared text will be The Poetics of Wrongness; discussion topics will likely include photography, the poetics of motherhood, the history of the confessional impulse, what makes something a poem, Anne Sexton, Bernadette Mayer, Alice Notley, Toi Derricotte, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Sally Mann, and Robert Frank. Rachel will provide weekly supplemental reading, watching, listening, and writing suggestions and each participant will be invited to influence the content and direction of the experience.

  • with Rachel Zucker

    This 12-week online reading, writing, talking experience with Rachel Zucker is for anyone who makes things or wants to make things! For anyone who wants to strengthen and deepen their creative practice or create a new joyful, dependable creative practice. No previous writing experience is necessary.

    Our shared text will be The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. We will meet once a week for 70 minutes and discuss the book, process, and exercises, at the pace of one chapter per week. The group will be limited to seven artists (including me). 

Testimonials

Rachel created a vibrant, inclusive, instantly welcoming space for lively, embodied consideration of complicated ideas. The light from class discussions and the generously offered reading groups shone into every corner of my life and creative work. I signed up because I was eager to find the kind of community Rachel has created with her podcast Commonplace, and the experience easily exceeded expectations. Could not recommend more highly and cannot wait for future course offerings.

—C.H., participant in “Writing Wrong,” 2023

Please accept my belated thanks for a wonderful Poetics of Wrongness class. It was truly such a generous, fruitful and formative experience. I never got an MFA and instead have taken many classes at outside-of-academia places over the years. This class was the first I've taken that didn't just try to improve the traditional dominant culture workshop model to be more equitable and inclusive, but re-envisioned what collective creative space could be entirely. I really appreciated your generosity with time and attention, and the flexibility that the structure of the class afforded to allow each person to get from it what they needed or wanted. I feel buoyed and grateful that this class gave me the loving push to start working on my manuscript again, but even if I hadn't I still would have found so much value outside of "producing" work that enriched my writing/creative/spiritual practice.

I also very much appreciated the way you held space for everyone to take care of themselves and intentionally opened the space in the first class with suggestions and encouragement for how we could do that. Every gathering on any topic should be established in that spirit. It's funny similar to Heather sharing at the end she is a therapist, I too felt relieved not to talk about my day job (a program director at a suicide prevention non-profit, not in direct service though). Given that, I especially appreciated your framing and care around mental health for ourselves and each other. 

—Laura Hoffman, participant in “Writing Wrong,” 2023