To Those Pidgeonholed In Their Shelters, Their Minds, Their Realities:
Pidgeonholes is launching a series of free lessons to share with you during these tumultuous times. We hope these lessons provide you with inspiration and distraction, as needed—whether you’re stuck at home self-isolating, or continuing to work, as required to do. Rest assured, we’re feeling anxious and uncertain too, and we hope these lessons ease those feelings, even if for a few minutes.
A distraction with purpose.
These lessons will run as long as we can provide them (and, hopefully, for as long as you need them). We have a number of lessons lined up, but if you’re interested in providing content, please contact us at [email protected]—we’d be more than happy to bring you into the mix.
We will not be providing feedback on pieces created from these lessons. Comment in the notes to the lesson that you’re looking for another set of eyes on your work, and we’re sure you’ll receive a response. What better way to spend this time apart than to read each other’s words.
Panic write. Stab the paper with your pen. Let your stream of conscious out. Let it run. Let it spool across the floor and thud down the steps. Lock yourself in the bathroom with your pad of paper and scream. Sit in the empty tub and forget it all. Sit on the steps of your house, your shelter, your now-closed-up-library, your abandoned space of refuge, and etch down your thoughts, as quickly as your pen will write. Don’t bottle it up. Don’t let it destroy you.
We want to hear this.
We need to hear this.
Let. It. Out.
We are here for you, we see you, and we love you.
With all of our hearts,
Pidgeonholes
(To view lessons, click on the “Curriculum tab” next to “Overview” above.)
All lessons are being provided free of charge. Instructors are volunteering their time, material, and knowledge without payment. If you’re in a position to contribute for access to these lessons and discussions, we would encourage you to donate directly to causes that support food programs for children and the underprivileged in your neighbourhood, as well as those that support healthcare workers, teachers, small business owners, and independent bookstores.
Photo by: Frederico Respini
Curriculum
- 1 Section
- 24 Lessons
- 52 Weeks
- LessonsLessons focusing on fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and the intercepts between, to provide inspiration and/or distraction.24
- 2.1The Thickness & The Threshold: A Lesson With Alina Stefanescu60 Minutes
- 2.2What Might Have Been: A Lesson With Steve Edwards57 Minutes
- 2.3What Echoes Will Always Come Back: A Lesson With Hillary Leftwich60 Minutes
- 2.4Creating Emotional Urgency Using Anaphora & Parallelism: A Lesson With Kathy Fish60 Minutes
- 2.5The House and You: Intimate Spaces, Objects and Memory: A Lesson With Hannah VanderHart60 Minutes
- 2.6Populating Fiction in the Age of Social Isolation: A Lesson with Aram Mrjoian60 Minutes
- 2.7All That Lingers: A Lesson with Satya Dash60 Minutes
- 2.8A Lesson with Kim Magowan60 Minutes
- 2.9Epistolary Writing: a Shortcut to Earnestness & a Step toward Experiment: A Lesson With Tyler Barton60 Minutes
- 2.10Diving Through to the Other Side: A Lesson With Meg Tuite60 Minutes
- 2.11Evoking Deep Feeling in Narrative: A Lesson With Jennifer Wortman60 Minutes
- 2.12What Stays on the Page: Using Photos as Inspiration: A Lesson With Madeline Anthes60 Minutes
- 2.13Freewriting With Sentence Starts: A Lesson With Francine Witte60 Minutes
- 2.14How Did We Get Here?: A Lesson With Joshua Jones60 Minutes
- 2.15Switching Up Your POV For Deeper Access: A Lesson With Melissa Ragsly60 Minutes
- 2.16The Sky is a Story: A Lesson With Robert James Russell60 Minutes
- 2.17Let’s Talk About How Stories Get Started: A Lesson With K.C. Mead-Brewer60 Minutes
- 2.18Hoarding and the Fear of Scarcity: A Lesson With Michelle Ross60 Minutes
- 2.19WYSIWYG (A Piece of Writing in Which What You See is What You Get): A Lesson With Kaj Tanaka60 Minutes
- 2.20A Lesson With Lauren Slaughter60 Minutes
- 2.21On Obsession and Time and Imperative: A Lesson With Sara Lippmann60 Minutes
- 2.22Our Bodies, Our Feelings, Our Paratext: A Lesson With Erik Fuhrer60 Minutes
- 2.23The A-ha Moments We Never Go A-ha To: A Lesson With Jennifer Fliss60 Minutes
- 2.24A Muse In Nature: A Lesson With Ashley M. Jones60 Minutes