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 KEEEER-S-LEE.
That's it for this first section of my website. It's been pretty demanding already.
[ about
Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a New York-based Black-biracial writer and teacher and the creator/producer/host of How I Learned, a long-running storytelling, comedy, and reading series.
Her writing has appeared in Catapult, Longreads, VICE, The Boston Globe, Midnight Breakfast, Electric Literature's The Nervous Breakdown, Oldster, Elle.com, and four anthologies—Nonwhite and Woman (Woodhall Press, 2022), PEREGRINE (Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, 2002), Cringe (Crown Publishing, 2008), and Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. (Gallery Books, 2006). She has written for several magazines and online outlets dating back to 2001 that are perhaps not worth mentioning by name and probably don't even exist anymore.
She has been mentoring writers since 2016 and has developed in-person, asynchronous, and text-based multi-week workshops, webinars, and intensives for creative communities across the country.
She is a contributing editor at Vestal Review, the oldest flash fiction journal on the planet. As a storyteller she has performed at The Moth, Risk, Literary Death Match, Mortified, The Gotham Storytelling Festival, and at various venues that serve booze and sometimes snacks. In another life,, she took a lot of pictures with actual cameras, and some of those pictures were published in places like New York Magazine, Gawker, Playbill, The Morning News, JPG Magazine, and Nerve.
She lives in Brooklyn but if you need her for something somewhere else, maybe she'll go there.
[ select writing
🜃 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 Anthology, Woodhall Press, 2022
🜃 The Story of My Father's Hands Catapult, 2022
🜃 Finding Oneself in 'Surviving the White Gaze' The Boston Globe, 2021
🜃 Why Mr. Bauer Didn't Like Me Longreads, 2019
🜃 3 Songs About Being Young and Disenfranchised Before The Internet The Weeklings, 2014
Blaise Writers Workshop + Consulting is committed to holding space that is challenging, safe, and inclusive.
[ current classes + consulting
In Person in Park Slope, Brooklyn:
8-Week Workshop
Intermediate / Advanced Memoir + Personal Essay
Wednesdays, June 21st - August 16th; 7:00 - 10:00 pm; No class on July 5th. Limited to 7 people by invite or application.
Note: You must be vaxxed to the max to attend.
For 8 weeks, we'll workshop narrative nonfiction submissions. Everyone will have at least two opportunities to submit their work for peer and instructor feedback.
We'll have focused discussions, generative write-ins, and purpose-oriented prompts
based primarily on the needs of the group. There will be short
readings— including work by Camonghne Felix, Joseph Earl Thomas, Margo Jefferson, Sarah Polley, Melissa Febos, and more—AND a special guest speaker.
$500
$460 if returning for a second workshop;
$450 if returning for a third and beyond.
Sliding scale is available for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.
Payment plans can be arranged. If you're experiencing financial hardship, let's talk about low-cost options.
This workshop is currently full.
1-Day Virtual Intensive
Writing the Hard Stuff: Telling Your Story Without Wholly Losing Your Mind
Thursday, June 29th; 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET (Zoom). Open to all.
How do you make your difficult or traumatic experiences interesting to somebody else? How do you avoid victim overload in your narrative?
Does humor have a place in the darkness?
How do you write about people who didn't ask to be written about? How do you put the hard stuff on the page without torturing yourself? What level of safety do you need? How do you even know if you're ready?
The process of putting our truth on the page can easily become overwhelming in myriad ways. It gets complicated. Sometimes we get triggered. We cringe. We freeze. We procrastinate. We resist. In this intensive, we'll try to unpack all of these issues using in-class writing and by turning to writers like Vanessa Martír, Lee Martin, Kiese Laymon, Camonghne Felix, Peter Balakian, and more.
So, what stories have you tucked away? What needs to come out? What are the risks worth taking?
$75
Sponsored by Writing Workshops.
6-Week Virtual Workshop
Sudden Truths: Writing Super-Short Memoir + Personal Essay
Tuesdays beginning July 18th; 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET (Zoom).
Limited to 10 people. Open to all.
What is the purpose of a micro-story? How do you craft something interesting with a beginning, middle, and end in 150-1000 words?
We'll explore the craft of flash memoir and personal essay and the ways in which the super-short form can enhance our writing practice, improve our skills, and contextualize our truths.
We'll experiment with word count, generate ideas through in-class writing, and discuss language, structure, pacing, narrative thread, the revision process, and more. We'll read Sonja Livingston, Bhante Sumano, Jill Talbot, and others.
Participants will share their work and receive constructive peer and instructor feedback.
$395
Sponsored by Writing Workshops.
2-Day Virtual Instensive
Real People, Real Characters: How To Develop Convincing, Complex Characters in Creative Nonfiction
Thursdays, August 3rd + August 10th; 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET (Zoom). Open to all.
Writing about real people, ourselves included, comes with its own set of challenges. How do we translate the folx in our lives into fully realized characters? What might make them come alive? How do we draw them in a balanced, multi-dimensional way?
We'll discuss the merits of showing and telling, round and flat characters, and explore identity, cultural differences, inside / outside story, persona, interiority, conflict and personal motivations.
We'll also read short excerpts from writers like Joseph Earl Thomas, T Kira Madden, Frank Conroy, Eileen Myles, Joanna Adorján, and more.
$150
Sponsored by Writing Workshops.
One-On-One
One-on-one work provides writers an opportunity to receive individual attention, personalized creative direction and guidance—whether you're working on a book or trying to finish stand alone pieces to pitch for publication.
During one-hour sessions (remotely or in person), we'll identify your goals and projects, and develop a work plan. You'll receive extensive critical feedback and other forms of support catered to your needs.
In the universally perpetual quest for accountability and momentum, signing up for 3 sessions at a time is recommended. However, our work together will primarily be based on your specific intentions and interests.
Sliding scale for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people with disabilities.
Payment plans and low-cost options for financial hardship are available.
Work by current and former students has appeared in Modern Love, Blavity, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bright Flash Literary Review, McSweeney's, Elle.com, Rolling Stone, Manifest Station, Narratively, Refinery29, Texas Monthly, 11th Street Journal, The Lunch Ticket, Dame Magazine, and elsewhere.
Get notified about 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
***
"I've taken several workshops over the years, all over the country, and this was by far the best. Blaise is a goddamn treasure." — Anonymous
"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
"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." — Anonymous
"Deadlines do wonders for circumventing procrastination. Nothing sharpens the mind like presenting personal work to a great, vetted group of writers." — Ravi Kroesen
"This is a fantastic format. The small class size ensures everyone gets ample time and submission opportunities. 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." —Anonymous
"I love that the readings center BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ voices. That has been an important and edifying element." —Kimberly Balsam
"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
" 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, Jr.
"I genuinely looked forward to each week. The advice you gave sent me back out into the world with confidence and purpose." — Anonymous
"What Blaise does is so specific and special.
You can't find that in other workshops."
— Jennifer Stewart
"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."
— Anonymous
"You treat every question with such a genuine desire to give the best possible answer. For someone like me, that means the world."
— Anonymous
"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."
— Alexandra Fendrich
"This class has been water in the desert for me."
— Mary Robertson
"During quarantine, 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
[ how i learned
Photo: Jon Boulier
Blaise Allysen's Kearsley's HOW I LEARNED series, a live reading/storytelling/comedy show, was born on the Lower East Side in 2009 and had a 10-year(!) run. The series featured Janelle James, Aparna Nancherla, Alexander Chee, Anna Sale, Ayo Edebiri, Joel Kim Booster, Nore Davis, Dodai Stewart, Jo Firestone, Jami Attenberg, Chloe Caldwell, Ophira Eisenberg, Isaac Fitzgerald, Nick Flynn, Mira Jacob, Rakesh Satyal, Lizz Winstead, Sasheer Zamata, Isaac Oliver, Mike Albo, Phoebe Robinson, Choire Sicha, Dan Kennedy, Rob Sheffield, Rosie Schaap, David Crabb, Kevin Allison, and many, many, many, many, many more.
~
Named one of "Five Best Comedy Shows Hosted By Women" by CBS New York and one of the Best Storytelling Series and Best Reading Series by Time Out New York.
"Hostess Blaise Allysen Kearsley makes sure to keep it awkwardly funny." -CBS New York
"...Always hilarious, sometimes touching, and without fail entertaining." -Brooklyn Magazine
"This show has renewed my faith in this whole storytelling endeavor and what it means in the world." -David Crabb, Host of The Moth
"Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a charming host with an irrepressible, humming little laugh that seems to be a compromise she’s made with some wicked guffaw within." -LitWrap
And another thing:
Join me and other creatives for a free 2.5-hour virtual write-in, a held space for quiet focus and accountability. No prompts. No sharing. Just good vibes and productive energy.
Pop in for part of the time or stay for the whole thing.