Milo Todd firmly believes in creating learning environments where queer and/or intersectionally marginalized students feel safe sharing their work, feedback, worries, and goals. The publishing world is a difficult place at the best of times, starting with the individual workshop experience, and he believes information and community support can break down gatekeeping and help queer writers succeed in their goals.
Milo’s classes are places where students will be treated with respect, and he welcomes individuals of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, races, genders, gender identities, gender expressions, national origins, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, abilities—and other visible and nonvisible differences. All students of his classes are expected to contribute to a respectful, welcoming, and inclusive environment for every other member of the class. Disrespectful language or behavior toward any of the above groups will not be tolerated and may result in removal from the remainder of the course without refund.
Upcoming Classes:
Queery-ing: Navigating Agents and Publishers While Queer
Saturday, December 3rd, 2022 from 11:00am to 1:00pm ET
Virtual via Zoom
Sliding scale: $50/$75/$100/$150 ($100+$50 scholarship donation)
Register for this class through my site.
What does a “very nice deal” mean in a publishing contract announcement? What’s a pre-empt? How does the trajectory from query to book deal normally work? Navigating the publishing industry is confusing at the best of times, but when you’re also a marginalized writer, it can feel overwhelming. In this 2-hour crash course, we’ll spend the first half in lecture and information—including query letters, industry language, standard agent contract rates, the differences of publishing houses, and more—and the second half in Q&A, all centering queer writers and the particular challenges they may face.
*This class is intended only for writers who identify as queer, trans, and/or nonbinary.
Writing Outside of Your Lane
Saturday, December 17th, 2022 from 10:30am to 1:30pm ET
Virtual via Zoom | 12 students maximum
$75, scholarships available
Register for this class at GrubStreet.
Over the past several years, the publishing world (and its readers) have thankfully demanded more diversity within stories. But as welcoming as this change is, it can leave many non-marginalized writers with anxiety. How are you supposed to go about it? What if you mess up? Are you allowed to write about marginalized people at all? This 3-hour course provides mainstream writers with the basics of how to write a marginalized character with which they don’t have a lived experience, breaking the process down into the bare bones of Self-Reflection, Research, Craft, Editing, and How to Handle Backlash. With pragmatic and clear-cut information—as well as the wisdom from such writers as Alexander Chee, Peter Ho Davies, and Stella Young—writers will leave this course with significantly more insight, awareness, and confidence to produce the most accurate and empathetic work they can.
*This class is open to all identities.
***4 SEATS LEFT*** Novel Writing Workshop for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers
10 Thursdays starting January 12th, 2023 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm ET
Virtual via Zoom | 9 students maximum
Sliding scale: $500/$675/$850/$1,350 ($850+$500 scholarship donation)
Register for this class through my site.
Many queer, trans, and/or nonbinary writers may have experienced workshops in the past that were silencing, unhelpful, or damaging when being workshopped by a predominantly cisgender/heterosexual writing group, however well-intentioned the group may have been. This workshop course is designed to help create a more intimate and relatable space for queer, trans, and/or nonbinary writers to both give and receive feedback on their works in progress. This class is for queer, trans, and/or nonbinary novelists who have taken advanced workshops before, are well versed in matters of craft, and who have already made some progress on a first draft.
The goal of this course is to workshop at least 30 pages in ten weeks (minimum, depending on class size). Feedback will be delivered using the novel-in-progress method: reading your pages (up to 15 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font) aloud in class at least twice in the course, and receiving on-the-spot, non-silencing feedback from your fellow novelists and instructor.
*This class is intended only for writers who identify as queer, trans, and/or nonbinary. Novels specific to queer, trans, and/or nonbinary themes are not required.
*Previous students of this course are welcome to return and continue workshopping their pages.
Writing Group: Accountability Cafe for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers
6 Thursdays starting March 30th, 2023 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm ET
Virtual via Zoom | 12 students maximum
$170, scholarships available
Register for this class at GrubStreet.
Having trouble finding the time to write? Want a group of peers to keep you on the path to your writing goals? Just want to be in the presence of some fellow LGBTQ+ writers? Grab a coffee and join the instructor-led Accountability Cafe, a virtual space specifically dedicated to queer, transgender, and/or nonbinary writers! In this low-stress environment, we’ll meet for 90 minutes once a week on Zoom to write, connect, ask questions, and share snippets of our work, all while the instructor pipes in study/focus music to help bring home that cafe feel. Come join us; accountability has never been so chilled out!
*This group is only available to LGBTQ+ writers.
Past Classes:
Effective Social Justice Storytelling (1 Hour)
November 2022
Independent
Inviting In Outside Readers (1 Hour)
November 2022
Independent
Writing Messy Queer Characters (3 Hours)
October 2022
GrubStreet
Jumpstart Your Novel (6 Weeks)
October 2022
GrubStreet
Writing Messy Queer Characters (3 Hours)
July 2022
GrubStreet
What Literary Journals Want You to Know (3 Hours)
June 2022
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane: The Basics (3 Hours)
May 2022
GrubStreet
Writing Transgender and Nonbinary Characters (90 Minutes)
April 2022
Clarion West
Writing Messy Queer Characters (2 Weeks)
March 2022
Lambda Literary
Novel Writing Workshop for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers (10 Weeks)
January 2022
GrubStreet
What Literary Journals Want You to Know (3 Hours)
November 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane: The Basics (3 Hours)
November 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Messy Queer Characters (3 Hours)
October 2021
GrubStreet
Novel Writing Workshop for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers (8 Weeks)
September 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane Series: Novel Writing Workshop (6 Weeks)
July 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane Series: The Basics (3 Hours)
July 2021
GrubStreet
Genre-Queer (4 Weeks)
May 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane Series: The Basics (3 Hours)
March 2021
GrubStreet
What Literary Journals Want You to Know (3 Hours)
March 2021
GrubStreet
Advanced Novel Workshop (10 Weeks)
January – March 2021
GrubStreet
Jumpstart Your Novel (6 Weeks)
January – February 2021
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane Series: The Basics (3 Hours)
December 2020
GrubStreet
Writing Outside of Your Lane Series: The Basics (3 Hours)
September 2020
GrubStreet
Jumpstart Your Novel (6 Weeks)
June – August 2020
GrubStreet
For Instructors: Transgender and Nonbinary Inclusion in the Writing Workshop (3 Hours)
October 2019
GrubStreet
Write on Fire: Turning Anger into Art (3 Hours)
September 2019
GrubStreet
Transgender Character Bootcamp (8 Hours)
July 2019
GrubStreet