Since 2022, Redbud’s Community Classes program has offered dozens of cost-free classes to Triangle residents who hail from a panoply of different racial and economic backgrounds. At Redbud, we are committed to offering classes that encourage students to explore literature and write about experiences that we believe should be reflected in the publishing industry: the interiority of women and gender nonconforming people, racial and ethnic identity, queer experience, reproductive justice, and more. Based on surveys of our community and conversations with our students and teachers, as well as the rhetoric in the larger creative writing community, we believe that it is essential to expand the kinds of writers and the kinds of writing that are nurtured and uplifted in the American literary landscape.
Students from all backgrounds deserve to hear that their voices matter and that they have the right to tell their stories and explore their imagination. They also deserve access to the craft-based instruction, care, feedback, and writerly community necessary to tell those stories. And when more different kinds of stories and writers are elevated, we all benefit.
August-September 2026 Community Courses:
Creative Writing at the Women’s Center is a drop-in class for unhoused women in the Raleigh area. Each week, Redbud instructor Red McClung will lead a lesson in fiction, memoir, and other types of writing from 10-11 a.m. at 2200 New Bern Ave. This class will meet on August 17, 24, 31, and September 14, 21, and 28.
All are welcome—just make sure to arrive by 8:15 a.m. the day of the class for registration if you haven’t previously attended programming at the Women’s Center.
This course is partly funded by a City of Raleigh Arts Council grant.
Intro to Memoir at the Salvation Army is open to any woman experiencing homelessness who is interested in learning more about creative writing and self-expression. It will take place Mondays from 6-8 p.m. starting in September (exact date coming soon).
This course is partly funded by a City of Raleigh Arts Council grant.
Our writing classes for survivors of domestic violence are some of our most popular Community Courses. This August-September, we’re bringing back memoir for this population. Anyone who identifies as a survivor is welcome in this course, which will meet Thursday, August 20 online, Wednesday, August 26 at 230 Fayetteville St. in Raleigh, Thursday, September 3 online, and Thursdays September 10, 17, and 24 in person at 230 Fayetteville Street (all classes from 6-8 p.m.). Writers who are new to our programming as well as students who have taken previous classes for survivors are welcome. To register, please fill out this form.
past offerings in this program include:
Fiction and memoir classes for survivors of domestic violence, in partnership with InterAct and A Place At the Table (download our case for support to learn more)
Memoir classes for unhoused Raleighites at the Raleigh Rescue Mission
Free fiction classes at the Durham Public Library
Classes for incarcerated writers at Butner Federal Prison
Memoir classes for women in addiction recovery at Healing Transitions (download our case for support to learn more)