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BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY
Hello, it's me. I know the name looks complicated. I would like to help you with that:
My first name is pronounced BLAZE, my middle name is just ALISON, but with some
different letters, and my last name sounds like KEY-ERS-LEE.
That's it for this first section of my website. It's been pretty demanding already.
[ bio
short version
Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a Brooklyn based Black-biracial writer and teacher whose writing has appeared in Catapult, Longreads, VICE, Memoir Land, The Boston Globe, Midnight Breakfast, Oldster, and four anthologies including Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World. She is a contributing editor at Vestal Review and a guest editor for Memoir Land. She is the creator of "How I Learned," a live literary and comedy series that ran in New York from 2009 - 2020.
long version
Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a Black-biracial writer, teacher, and coach. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Catapult, Longreads, Memoir Land, The Boston Globe Book Review, Midnight Breakfast, The Nervous Breakdown, Oldster, and four anthologies including Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World and Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic.. She wrote for several online outlets dating back to the early aughts that are perhaps not worth mentioning by name and probably don't even exist anymore. She was an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and is currently a guest editor for Memoir Land and a contributing editor for Vestal Review, the longest running flash fiction journal on the planet (for real).
Blaise has been leading workshops and mentoring writers since 2016. She has developed a series of niche nonfiction classes, webinars, and intensives, including The Topography of Memory; Real People, Real Characters; Structure, Feeling and Form; Writing the Hard Stuff; Sudden Truths: Writing Flash Nonfiction; The Art of Personal Essay Writing; Writing Our Way into Story; Advanced Creative Nonfiction; Cultivating a Writing Practice; and Ties That Bind: Writing the Family — and the more traditional classes: Introduction to Memoir; Creative Nonfiction 101; Creative Writing 101; and Creative Nonfiction for Teens. She is associated with Gotham Writers Workshop, Black Women's Writing Society, the NYC Writers Coalition, and The Center for Fiction.
She is the creator and producer of How I Learned, a live storytelling/comedy/reading series that ran long and hot in New York from 2009 - COVID. She has been a panelist atThe Gotham Storytelling Festival and a storyteller at The Moth, Risk!,The Liar Show, Story Collider, The Rejection Show, Literary Death Match, Cringe, Mortified, Oblivio Reading Series, and WYSIWYG, the first ever bloggers' storytelling show. In one of her other lives, she took pictures with real film and digital cameras, some of which were published in New York Magazine, Gawker, Playbill, Gothamist, JPG Magazine, and other places.
She grew up in the Northeast and is rooted in Brooklyn now, but if you need her for something somewhere else, maybe she'll go there.
[ select writing
🜃 The Story of My Father's Hands | Memoir Land, 2023; originally published in Catapult
🜃 Words to Call a Sweater | PEREGRINE, Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, 2022
🜃 A Jet All The Way | Oldster Magazine, 2022
🜃 The First Time It Happened | Nonwhite and Woman, Woodhall Press, 2022
🜃 Finding Oneself in 'Surviving the White Gaze' | The Boston Globe, 2021
🜃 Why Mr. Bauer Didn't Like Me | Longreads, 2019
[ classes + coaching
I do my best to stay aware, to listen, to learn, and to consistently build safe creative spaces for my fellow BIPOC, and for LGBTQ+, and disabled writers. (In a better world this would go without saying, but here we are.)
- 1
In-Person Advanced Creative Nonfiction: Brooklyn, NY
8 weeks. Thursdays, July 11th - September 12th, 7 - 10pm.
Class meets on Zoom July 25th and September 5th ; No class on August 29th.
Limited to 7 people.
Find refuge and catch vibes in a bright, socially conscious, and Black woman-owned spot in an iconic Brooklyn brownstone. This is where we'll hold space for each other, set weekly and long-term intentions, and keep one another accountable. With rigor and communal dedication, we’ll pave the way toward solving problems in the work, expanding and sharpening our writing practice, and engaging in the power of creative vulnerability.
We'll generate fresh pages in class, spend ample time workshopping works-in-progress and new explorations, and soak up inspiration from other writers in the world. Everyone will have at least two opportunities to submit work for
This is an independent Blaise Writers Workshop
SOLD OUT
2The Topgraphy of Memory: Two-Day Intensive Webinar
Tuesdays, September 3rd + September 10th, 6:30 - 9:00pm ET
Memory is tricky and vaporous. Even a moment we remember “exactly, like it was yesterday” gradually shifts and morphs. Memory is constantly changing; memory has a mind of its own. So if recall is unreliable and fallible, then why write memoir? Is it just fiction in disguise? How does the brain actually access and translate memories, and if there is so much about the brain that is still unknown how do we attribute meaning to what we think we know?
In this part-talk, part-generative course we'll consider the meaning of the personal narrative, how our writing is both hindered and enhanced by the mechanics of memory, and how we might navigate the gaps of things we’ve forgotten. Through discussion, readings, and results-driven writing prompts, we'll dig around the wiring to find our stories and explore various ways of telling them in spite, or because of, the trickery of remembering.
Day 1: Beliefs, distortions and where memory lives; Day 2: Grappling with gaps, time and changing perspectives
Sponsored by Writing Workshops | $150
3Writing Our Way Into Story: Generative Virtual Workshop
6 weeks. Wednesdays, August 28th - October 9th, 6:30 - 8:30pm ET.
No class on September 11th.
Open to all genres.
Whether you've been writing since forever, just ten minutes ago, or you haven't written a page in twenty years, this exploratory workshop will find you conjuring up ideas, planting seeds, growing stories you didn't even know were in you, and working your way through blocks and pickles.
In this class, writers can move in and out of any genre as we dig into both probing and playful prompts. You'll generate a ton of material, gain new creative approaches to put in your pocket, sharpen your existing tools, and build on your strengths — all in a safe, championing community. Grab this time to write and guard it with your life.
Week 1 - Free Writing + Intuition; Week 2 - Memory + Imagination; Week 3 - Language + Observation; Week 4 - Identity + Sense of Place; Week 5 - Form, Function + Meaning;
Week 6 - Why We Write
Sponsored by Writing Workshops | $425
4One-on-One
Remote or in Brooklyn
Receive personalized creative direction and craft guidance for books, essays, or pieces to pitch for publication — or to develop a writing practice and identify your intentions. Sessions may include extensive critical feedback, editing, writing blocks for accountability, focus, and creative cultivation. Resources and recommendations are readily available.
In the universally perpetual quest for accountability and momentum, signing up for 3 sessions is recommended, but tailoring the mentorship for each individual is first and foremost.
This is an independent offering.
Sliding scale and
lower cost options are available for marginalized voices. Payment plans are also an option.
If you're able to pay higher up on the scale without strain, you'll be funding a marginalized writer and helping to sustain low cost options. Much appreciated.
Contact me for a free 15-minute consultation.
Subscribe to find out about new and upcoming workshops.
[ things people say
"Blaise's class made me a stronger writer.
It was the hardest workshop I've ever done, but also one of the most important."
— Jennifer Stewart (Dame Magazine)
"Submitting something for publication was one of my goals and that gave me the push I needed to hit the 'send' button." — Genevieve Kingston (Did I Ever Tell You? A Memoir)
"If you're looking for a more tailored workshop experience, this is the place."
— Flash nonfiction workshop participant
"I've taken several workshops over the years, all over the country, and this was by far the best. Blaise is a goddamn treasure."
— Memoir workshop participant
"Blaise believed in me and my writing and showed me how I, too, can believe in myself and my writing. The level of care she provides for her students is unparalleled."
— Tiffany Yo
"I love that the readings center BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ voices. That has been an important and edifying element."
— Kimberly Balsam
"Blaise's feedback is fabulous , thoughtful, insightful, generous, and inspiring."
— Katherine Arnup ("I Don't Have Time For This!": A Compassionate Guide to Caring for Your Parents and Yourself)
"Blaise was really able to build a community on Zoom. This is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and she made it seem so easy."
— Memoir workshop participant
"This is a fantastic format. It's like a tiny focus group for pinpointing the areas of my writing that need further development."
— Creative nonfiction workshop participant
"Blaise is such a skilled reader and editor, and her notes are always valuable. She offers wonderful perspectives and assembles groups of writers with keen perspectives of their own. Highly recommend."
— Creative nonfiction workshop participant
"What Blaise does is so specific and special.
You can't find it in other workshops."
— Jennifer Stewart (Dame Magazine)
"This class has been water in the desert for me."
— Mary Robertson
"Nothing sharpens the mind like presenting personal work to a great, vetted group of writers."
— Ravi Kroesen
"Right after the first class I started paying closer attention to how writers had created characters and how their desires moved stories forward in shows I was watching and novels I was reading. It made me more mindful of the intentionality behind works I like, which will crystalize even more when I write. The writing samples were all new to me and amazing. I’ve reordered my reading list accordingly. I didn’t think I would like the in-class writing exercises but I did. I really liked the time constraints and how they forced me to write from the gut."
— Two-day intensive participant
"Everything this group taught me about specificity, vulnerability and vivid storytelling made a huge difference. I'm so thankful for our eight weeks together." — Genevieve Kingston (Did I Ever Tell You? A Memoir)
"I feel so inspired, enriched, encouraged, and empowered in my writing practice. I've been sitting at my desk since we all logged off just feeling how full of gratitude my heart is—for you, the workshop, and the entire group."
— Adaeze Elechi (Callaloo)
"I had to show up for myself and others who counted on me, even when I felt like all I wanted to do was hide under my couch. Being part of this creative group of writers saved me."
— Anna Grundström (Narratively)
"It's always a privilege to work with you. Your work as a writer, teacher, and mentor has had a huge impact on me."
— Jackie Shihadeh
"I genuinely looked forward to each week. The advice you gave sent me back out into the world with confidence and purpose."
— Creative writing workshop participant
"Taking your class on literary nonfiction and receiving your feedback provided value beyond what I could have imagined. See? You can teach an old writer new tricks."
— Dan Fogel (HuffPo)
" 1.) Your exuberance and contagious laughter made everyone feel more open. 2.) My God, revising is your superpower. The before and after is astonishing and I might frame a page or two. I will take anything of yours I can get a spot for."
— Robert Bond
"You treat every question with such a genuine desire to give the best possible answer. For someone like me, that means the world."
— Creative nonfiction workshop participant
"I want to thank you for not only helping me improve my writing but for the confidence
and practical knowledge I got from your classes to polish and submit my work. Your feedback and mentorship have meant so much to me."
— Creative nonfiction workshop participant
"Thank you for creating this generous space
for us to try new things and be vulnerable, for the insightful feedback, and for leading us through the last 8 weeks. I'm really grateful."
— Alex Fendrich
"What a pleasure it has been to work with you. You're truly the best, and thank you so much for finding time to work with me."
— Jennifer Taylor-Skinner
[ silent virtual write-in
This is a free 2 - 3 hour writing block, but you can pop in any time. No prompts. No sharing. Just creative energy, accountability, and good vibes. It's kind of like study hall, but better? Dates and times vary. Sign up for notifications.
[ how i learned
HOW I LEARNED is a live reading/storytelling/comedy series created and produced by Blaise Allysen Kearsley. The monthly show was born on the Lower East Side in 2009 and ran for over a decade. One-off shows are currently in development.
The list of esteemed performers over the years includes:
Ayo Edebiri, Janelle James, Aparna Nancherla, Alexander Chee, Anna Sale, Nick Flynn, Joel Kim Booster, Nore Davis, Dodai Stewart, Abbi Jacobsen, Ilana Glazer, Elliott Glazer, Jo Firestone, Jami Attenberg, David Carr, John Fugelsang, Elna Baker, Dave Hill, Josh Gondelman, Mike Doughty, Maggie Estep, Valley Lodge, Lane Moore, Marie Faustin, Chloe Caldwell, Ophira Eisenberg, Isaac Fitzgerald, Mira Jacob, Rakesh Satyal, Lizz Winstead, Taylor Negron, Sasheer Zamata, Mike Albo, Phoebe Robinson, Choire Sicha, Dan Kennedy, Rob Sheffield, Rosie Schaap, Kevin Allison, and more.
Named one of "Five Best Comedy Shows Hosted By Women" (CBS New York), Best Storytelling Series, and Best Reading Series (Time Out New York).
"...Always hilarious, sometimes touching, and without fail entertaining." -Brooklyn Magazine
"A charming host with an irrepressible, humming little laugh that seems to be a compromise she’s made with some wicked guffaw within." -LitWrap
"This show has renewed my faith in this whole storytelling endeavor and what it means in the world." -David Crabb, Host of The Moth
[ get in touch
Top photo: Adam Paul Verity
How I Learned photos: Jesse Chan-Norris + Jon Boulier
Blaise Writers Workshop logo: Andy Ross Creative
© 2024 Bazima Productions