Introducing Moon Rabbit Writing Studio!

A safe place for creative joy!

BIG NEWS!

YOU GUYS FABULOUS MORTALS OF ALL GENDERS!

I have NEWS.

NEWS that is very cool and exciting and important!

Here it is: I HAVE STARTED MY OWN TEACHING BUSINESS!!!

After 20+ years of building other people’s spaces, I am SO excited to start a space of my own.

Want to know more? YEAH YOU DO! Here’s a helpful Q&A to introduce you to ***Moon Rabbit Writing Studio LLC***!

Sooooo….what’s this business exactly?

Moon Rabbit Writing Studio is a space for finding your creative joy (which is exactly what this bunny has found while writing The Great American Novel on what is apparently the very same IBM I took to college in 1998)!

Here’s what we* teach:

*“We” meaning the royal “we,” because a) I am a qween, and b) I am my only employee.

Writing Workshops

In-person and online, synchronous and asynchronous, for beginning, intermediate, and advanced writers! Come learn practical skills while having a ton of fun. The first in-person class is Saturday, March 2 at the Decker Library in Denver, and the first virtual class is Friday, February 23 on zoom Sign up today!

Coaching

Are you creative who feels disconnected from your craft? Do you need a manuscript review? Are you going through a major life change and suddenly have no idea how to structure your time? Sign up for an online coaching session, and we’ll figure it out together!

Antiracist Parenting Workshops

I’m partnering with Denver bookstores to teach a class called Decolonizing Your (Kids’) Bookshelf. Come learn how to curate your own diverse book collection, make a list of books that will work for your child, and purchase them on site! Sign up for the first session on April 17 at Second Star to the Right Books in Denver. Can’t make it to class? Upgrade to a paid subscription for monthly themed, curated book lists for parents and kids featuring the latest releases from the world’s most fabulous BIPOC, QTPOC, and LGBTQIA+ writers!

Okay, that doesn’t sound…terrible. But why should I take classes from you?

Look. I know most writing students gravitate to writing classes taught by hot young ingenues with perfectly winged eye makeup and books that spend 8+ weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, not perimenopausal 40-something Auntys who last wore makeup while starring in the 2002 Harlingen Performing Arts Theater production of Meet Me in St. Louis* and routinely get asked, “If you’re a writer, how come I’ve never heard of you?”

If you want to take the ingenue’s classes, go ahead! But here are some reasons to also take mine:

1. I’m a trained teacher. I have a doctorate in education, I’ve been teaching for 20+ years, and I have been studying and improving my pedagogy that whole time. When it comes to teaching, I know what I’m doing.

2. I’ve been antiracist forever. I took my first Critical Race Theory class in 2006, and have been running antiracism trainings ever since. I’m committed to creating safe, inclusive spaces for all identities in all my classes, writing and otherwise.

3. I’m messy AF. Due to untreated mental illness, undiagnosed neurodiversity, and parenthood, my creative life has been something I’ve had to fight really, really hard to maintain. I can help you solve your creative problems because I have been there. A lot of days, I’m still there. In short: I got you, judgment free.

4. My classes are cheap AF. Since I’m just starting my entrepreneur era, I have no idea how much to charge anyone for anything I struggle with impostor syndrome I’ve created a competitive pricing model that makes every single class a really good deal.

5. Ziwe is my bestie. No, seriously. She is. (She is not.)

*It’s taken me twenty years to be at peace with the fact that will never do anything this cool again…which is why I bring it up literally every chance I get.

Not sure if saying you’re a try hard struggle bus who peaked at 22 is the best way to attract students, but….

Um, touché. Also, is there a question in there?

Yeah, actually. WTF is a moon rabbit?

I’m so glad you asked! I got the name from my favorite Buddhist Jataka tale, which goes like this: once upon a time, a long time ago, an otter, a monkey, a jackal, and a rabbit were best friends. Tara (the femme version of Buddha) heard this and was like, “Kyaaaaaa?* This I gotta see.”** She disguised herself as a granny (like Asian gods do), tracked down the friends, and told them she was hungry.

The friends sprang into action! The otter brought fish. The monkey brought fruit. The jackal killed something (a lizard?) and stole something (curd?). But the rabbit wasn’t a hunter or a climber or a fisherperson, and you can’t exactly feed grass to a goddess-disguised-as-a-granny. Desperate, she said, “I’ve got it! I’ll throw myself into the fire. Add a little masala, then eat me when I’m cooked, k?”

Some gods would’ve been down with this. But Tara (a woman of color) was like, “Nope nope nope nope nope absolutely not nope.” She turned back into a goddess - which was a big deal but not a big surprise; I mean, how many old ladies show up in the jungle asking a random group of mammals for food? - and told the rabbit to cut the self-sacrificial patriarchal nonsense. Then she put the rabbit on the moon, where the sweet but misguided cottontail could do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to, and no one would ask anything more of her ever again.

Just like the rabbit on the moon, at Moon Rabbit Writing Studio, you can be whoever you want without worrying about being good enough.

At Moon Rabbit, no one expects you to throw any part of yourself into the fire. All we expect is for you to show up exactly as you are, to share exactly what you want to share, and to try your best to be free.

*Hindi for “whaaaaaaaaaat.”

**This retelling is hella historically accurate.

Sign up for a class or coaching session today!

And now, on to other news…

CLASSES

How to Map Out Your Novel, hosted by the Center for Fiction. Come structure your book with me! $150, 3 day workshop, two hours a day, February 16-18

Writing Ourselves Home - VIRTUAL - The very first virtual Moon Rabbit class! The very first in-person Moon Rabbit class! Come celebrate the place you call home with this generative writing class. Beginning writers - leave with a poem that makes you proud. Intermediate / advanced writers - leave with new techniques for generating and working with sensory details. Friday, February 23, 10 AM - 11:30 AM MST.

Writing Ourselves Home - IN PERSON - The very first in-person Moon Rabbit class! Come celebrate the place you call home with this generative writing class. Beginning writers - leave with a poem that makes you proud. Intermediate / advanced writers - leave with new techniques for generating and working with sensory details. Saturday, March 2, 1-3 pm, Decker Library (1501 S Logan St. Denver)

Writing the Body - VIRTUAL - How do our bodies surprise us? How do they disappoint us? How do they change over time? How do we incorporate our corporeal experiences into fictional and nonfictional characters? In this generative workshop, we will write about what it is like to live in our own skin, or to live in the skin of characters that we invent. Thursday, March 14, 10 AM - 11:30 AM MST.

Decolonize Your Practice - IN PERSON - Would you like to introduce your kids to more diverse books, but aren't sure where to begin? Learn how to curate a diverse library for your kids, practice with a community of like-minded parents, and leave with a list of suggested titles you can purchase on site at Second Star to the Right (1455 S Pearl St.) Sunday, April 7th, 2-4 PM.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CLASSES FROM THE CENTER FOR FICTION, MOON RABBIT, AND IN COLLABORATION WITH DENVER BOOKSTORES SOON!

PUBLICATIONS

Check out my interview with Hena Khan for Kirkus, and buy her beautiful book Drawing Deena!

I have a new digital picture book out! It’s called Full of Light, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. Please read and share!