Welcome, Bookwyrms! I have news for you: This fall, I'm offering two online literature classes, and you're invited to sign up! One is on SHAKESPEARE & JUSTICE from Politics & Prose bookstore in D.C.; the other is MYTH & MEANING THROUGH THE WARDROBE, which I'm offering independently through a freshly redesigned Wyrdhoard.
Here is more information about each.
Offered by Wyrdhoard:
Learning & Lore for Writers & Readers
Tuesdays & Thursdays, September 2 - October 16
from 3:00-4:00 pm ET Online
Price: $240.00 Per Person
⧫ A deep dive into The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ⧫
Starting in the fall of 2025, I'll be offering my first-ever independent online literature class, and I invite you to join. This rigorous, engaging, slow-reading course is designed for eager adults from a variety of backgrounds who love books and long for a community of like-minded friends with whom they can dig into their favorite texts.
Just as readers step into an unknown world each time they open a new book, so Lucy Pevensie steps into Narnia when she opens the Wardrobe in the Spare Room. Come along with her and with a community of fellow literature-lovers as I guide you through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. We’ll explore the book’s historical context; its classic archetypes; some of the source texts from which it draws; how it portrays addiction, betrayal, and restoration; what perspective the narrator offers; how it dramatizes theological points; what timeless virtues animate its characters and plot; and how it interacts with real-world mythology. Through a lively combination of lecture, discussion, and close reading, I’ll accompany you and your classmates through an adventurous look at this children’s tale as we ask what makes it worth re-reading as an adult, how the author’s interactions with earlier works enriches a seemingly simple story, and whether it provides a map for making meaning in our own lives. Come, enter Narnia with me!
Required Reading: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Click Here to Register & Pay Now
Offered by Politics & Prose Bookstore
Four Mondays: September 29, October 6, 13 and 20 from 6:00 to 8:00pm ET Online
Price: $140.00 Per Person (10% off for members)
Ever since Will Shakespeare took the stage in his own plays in the 1590s, audiences have read his works as social and political commentaries, responding with enthusiasm, condemnation, inspiration, or action. In this course, we’ll ask how Shakespeare’s plays describe a healthy, functioning society or an unhealthy, broken one; how they define justice and show it in action; and who they frame as the dispensers and recipients of justice. His characters famously struggle with racial discrimination, mental illness, poverty, incarceration, political oppression, and sexual violence: All perennial human sorrows every society and culture has to face. We’ll carefully read the texts in their historical context, trying not to impose our current views backwards upon them; after all, Shakespeare was not a Democrat, a Republican, or even an American! We’ll also humbly open ourselves to learn from his profound insights into human psychology and community.
Required Reading:
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (9781439191163)
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (9781982157418)