Writing Co-Lab: Create in Community.

Writing Co-Lab is an artist owned and run teaching cooperative that provides classes, workshops, programs, retreats, and content for writers at every level to foster craft, creativity, confidence, and community. The organization was founded in 2023 by Brian Gresko, Sara Lippmann, and Amy Shearn on the belief that writers flourish professionally, personally, and artistically when they work in dynamic collaboration with one another. Our model is progressive, systems critical, and centered on valuing the labor and contributions of our teacher-writers, administration, and students. Together, we celebrate and contribute to the joyous power of the written word.

Co-Lab, short for cooperative laboratory, indicates our excitement and commitment to working together as educator-artists and with our students to provide educational experiences not seen within the traditional academic or continuing-ed landscape. Our teachers bring their unique experiences, perspectives, and voices to their offerings, which cover a variety of topics, from preparing work for publication, to deepening discipline, trying new styles and techniques, and cultivating fun in the writing process. And because we are a cooperatively run organization, the majority of student tuition – between eighty and ninety percent – goes to the writer/teacher in the classroom. 

Community is at the heart of who we are. Not long after we launched, Sara Lippmann ran our first Ungodly Hour Writing Club, which gathered writers online at dawn to work in silent camaraderie. That club continues and has since expanded to The Lab, an accountability and coaching program that helps writers develop and maintain a creative practice, and which now has sessions that run internationally. Since 2025, we’ve taken the optimistic, expansive energy of these programs off the screen and on retreat. The annual Peitho’s Gift retreat in Crete, Greece – run by Trish Fancher and Brian Gresko – is designed to help writers reconnect with their creative spirit and partake in the joys of intentional community while also recharging their bodies in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. 

Our community-centric mission extends to missives of outreach to the literary world at large. During the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, Writing Co-Lab ran 100 Days of Creative Resistance, which provided free messages of hope, grief, rage, and commiseration from an incredible group of writers. That series continues periodically with new pieces distributed via our newsletter. More recently, Writing Co-Lab began producing In Collaboration With…, an informal, warm-spirited interview series about craft, culture, community, and the transformational power of art and narrative on a personal, political, and societal level. That series is distributed for free via our newsletter, and on substack, and can be found wherever you listen to podcasts.

At Writing Co-Lab, we believe you do not need an MFA, an agent, a book deal, a social media account, a diploma, or anyone’s permission to call yourself an artist and a writer. All you need is to give yourself time and space to write. Doing so is a deeply rewarding experience, and it is our privilege to help you on that journey, whether you are looking for renewed vigor on the way or are about to take your first steps.

Browse our current class offerings.

Keep up with Writing Co-Lab by signing up for our newsletter.

Why Choose Us?

  • The majority of your tuition goes to the writer in the classroom with you, we keep our administrative costs as low as possible.

  • We offer a variety of classes, with coaching and consultation packages, accountability programs, and writing retreats, and we’re always developing new ways to come together and be creative!

  • Our teachers are a diverse group of working writers with a variety of experiences.

  • Our classes are online and scheduled at a variety of times, so everyone will find something that suits their schedule.

Co-Lab Instructors

current and past

Steve Almond, Erica Anzalone, Tiffany Babb, Hannah Bae, Rebekah Bergman, Duncan Birmingham, Jiordan Castle, Jennifer Close, Elwin Cotman, Tania De Rozario, Tommy Dean, Jenzo DuQue, Stephanie Feldman, Omer Friedlander, Megan Culhane Galbraith, Edgar Gomez, Christopher Gonzalez, Brian Gresko, August Grimm, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Abeer Hoque, Mila Jaroniec, Aishwarya Kumar, Caitlin Kunkel, Danielle Lazarin, Chin-Sun Lee, Kim Liao, Jami Nakamura Lin, Sara Lippmann, Sarah Thankam Mathews, Mary Kate McGrath, Lily Meyer, Richard Mirabella, Carley Moore, Natasha Oladokun, Mallika Rao, Bushra Rehman, Eraldo Souza dos Santos, Prince Shakur, Amy Shearn, Rachel Sherman, Anna Solomon, Cherry Lou Sy, Elizabeth Teets, Jeanne Thornton, Lauren Veloski, Alexandra Watson, Molly Roden Winter

Co-Lab Co-Founders

Brian Gresko (they/he) is a writer, illustrator, and literary journalist based in Brooklyn, where they co-run Pete’s Reading Series, the borough's longest running literary venue. Their most recent book is You Must Go On: 30 Inspirations on Writing & Creativity. Their work has appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, Slate, The Atlantic, Longreads, The Rumpus, and many other publications. The first in their family to attend college, Brian studied narrative theory at Oberlin College and received an MFA from the New School. Brian currently acts as Writing Co-Lab’s director.

Sara Lippmann (she/her) is the author of the novels Lech and Hidden River, and the story collections Doll Palace and Jerks. With Seth Rogoff, she is co-editor of the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible. Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. She received a BA from Brown and an MFA from the New School, and has over 20 years of teaching creative writing to students of all ages, including with Girls Write Now, 92NY, Rutgers, and St. Joseph’s University. Raised outside of Philadelphia, she lives with her family in Brooklyn. Sara is current Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany Magazine.

Amy Shearn (she/her) is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, How Far Is the Ocean From Here, Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024), and Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025). She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Amy's essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, Coastal Living, Poets & Writers, and Literary Hub. She has short fiction and poetry publications forthcoming in No Tokens and Pigeon Pages. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn.

Co-Lab Logo

Our logo was designed in 2024 by Co-Lab student Philip James Shaw; used with permission

FAQs

  • The administration of Writing Co-Lab is handled by three coordinators, who are themselves Co-Lab teachers, and who share that labor with the other teachers. So, for instance, things like newsletters, promotional graphics, and community events are handled by the teachers—there’s no paid publicity or administration staff. We do all that work ourselves, working collaboratively and in cooperation with one another! And the teachers have designed all of the classes themselves too. We built this coop together, and we own it, so almost all of the student tuition (upwards of 90%) goes right to the teacher who is in the classroom. Because we’re not a traditional for-profit business with all the staff that entails, we might move a little slower then you expect, so please be patient when reaching out to us, but don’t worry, we’ll get back to you… eventually!

  • Once you’ve found a Co-Lab class that you want to take from our class list, click on the “enroll” link. You will then be directed to our corsizio site, where you can pay tuition using debit or credit card, and secure your spot in the class. You’ll receive a receipt, and then you’re in! About a week or so before your first class session you’ll be put in contact with the teacher, who will pass along the zoom information and whatever else you’ll need to know about the class.

  • Once you have secured your spot in the class (see above), then your teacher will be in touch with all the information that you need before the first class session.

  • Our teachers use Zoom for their online classes. Live captioning is now a built-in feature, so if you’d like the teacher to have that turned on, please let them know directly. For any other accommodations, get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

  • Hey now, that’s not technically a question. Seriously though, drop us a line via our contact form!