Barbara Presnell
Upcoming classes 2026-27
January 7, 2027
6-8 pm
Charlotte Lit
601 E. 5th Street, Suite 160
Charlotte, NC 28202
WRANGLING OUR WILD HORSES
2-hour workshop
When ideas begin to race in, they are often wild and uncontrolled—as they should be! We should welcome them into the barn! But they can sometimes be so untamed and unrelated that we don’t know where they belong or even if we want to keep them. We end up abandoning ideas out of frustration and our inability to bridle them.
In this 2-hour workshop, for poets, prose-writers, or anyone trying to put a harness on an idea, we’ll try some methods to tame those horses. This will be a hands-on workshop, offering ideas, exercises, discussion, and examples of ways to calm and shape ideas and move forward. This workshop would be particularly useful for anyone in the beginning of a project in any genre or in mid-stage (first draft) where everything wants in but not everything belongs.
FIND YOUR STORY: WRITE YOUR LIFE
Everybody has a story to tell, and most of us have many! We will begin this class on memoir writing by searching for the important threads that run through our lives, those moments that matter. We’ll discuss and practice elements of storytelling—memory, place, narration, voice, dialogue, detail, and more, and each student will embark on a writing project for the week as well as a plan for a longer project. By the end of our sessions, each student should have at least one complete memoir story and ideas on how to keep a personal project going and growing.
Big Title
The Folk School Experience
The Folk School’s immersive and non-competitive environment is perfect for exploring your creativity or building confidence in your craft. Our small-sized classes are taught by expert instructors who make you feel at ease right away, guiding students with joy and understanding. Most of our sessions begin on Sunday and run through the following Saturday. Classes run for six hours a day—but don’t be surprised if you find yourself staying late or coming back to your studio in the evenings!
Want to work with me?
Consulting & Coaching
Writing is an act of discovery, and sometimes we need a steady companion to help us see what our work is trying to become. As a writer, I tell stories. My years in the classroom have helped me understand subtleties of language, punctuation, and syntax. However, my consulting and coaching focus on content and structure, not on editing or proofreading. I approach writing organically and individually: no one form, style, even word choice is the only way. I can help you explore ideas, always with the goals of clarifying and improving. With an organic, intuitive approach, I can help you understand what you’re really saying and how your work can best carry that meaning into the world.
What I can do:
1. Offer organic, not formulaic, help with structure
I look for patterns and themes within a writing, whether poetry or non-fiction—for the tensions, silences, and repetitions that reveal a piece’s form far better than a template or tradition can. I consider what the writing is literally about and what it is about in the deeper sense: what it understands about being human, and what it wants the reader to understand. These are essential questions for every writer to ask themselves, but it’s often more difficult to see what to others may be obvious in your work.
2. Provide constructive, detailed feedback
I offer thoughtful, specific suggestions or possibilities for rewriting, both in marginal comments and lengthier written response. I’m not always right, but I am always honest and attentive.
3. Help you figure out what you're trying to say and how that might look on the page
If your work feels shapeless, I help you explore structure possibilities for moving forward or understanding what you have written. If you’re unsure what you want to say, we can talk it through—exploring questions, naming themes, clarifying intentions, even the ones you haven’t yet articulated.
4. Offer support at any stage
Whether you’re starting with an outline or idea with no plan of where to go next, or you’ve taken a piece as far as you can on your own, I can help you see what’s possible.
This is the part of teaching I love: sharing my own love of words with others and passing what I’ve learned from brilliant teachers and from life itself onto others who want to practice the fine and fun art of writing.
What I cannot do:
I want our work together to be clear and grounded from the start, so here are my limitations:
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I do not provide editing or proofreading.
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I do not assist with publishing beyond sharing my own experience and pointing you toward resources.
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I do not write blurbs (except for friends and former students).
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I do not work with fiction, short or long.
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I do not ghost write or write anyone else’s story.
My hope is to help you shape, understand, and strengthen your work.
Contact me:
If you think I can help, or you want to talk further about possibilities, email me. We'll figure out a fee schedule based on your needs and expectations and the project itself. I can work with you on either a project-basis (a one time piece) or an on-going basis.
Whatever you do, KEEP WRITING! You have a story that is uniquely yours!