Robin Chapman (left) & Judith Strasser (right) teach at The Clearing

Judith offers writing workshops (poetry and prose) for adults ranging from those with little or no writing experience to published poets. Each workshop is designed for a specific group of participants. Workshops may range in length from one hour to one week. Judith is listed as a recommended artist in the Madison Civic Center's Arts Alive! catalog. (Funding for Arts Alive! programs sponsored by local organizations is available through the Civic Center.)

"Today's workshop with Judith has been a 'safe container' to put on paper thoughts unsaid."

"Excellent! One of the few writing instructors who actually can teach writing."

"Worth every minute!"

Past workshops include:

Writing a Life One-Hour Memoir Workshops.

Judith presents short, hands-on memoir workshops at bookstores and libraries. Venues have included Barnes & Noble stores in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Vroman's in Pasadena, Modern Times in San Francisco, and the New Amsterdam branch of the New York Public Library.

Writing a Life Memoir Workshop (at Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, Wisconsin, summer and fall 2004)

In this workshop, spanning three weekends, writers who wish to write longer memoirs focus on the essential questions: How do you get started with this business of narrating your own life? How do you know what to say? How do you deal with the practical and ethical problems of memoir-writing? The third weekend of the workshop--several months after the first two weekends--offers a safe place for participants to share the memoirs they've been writing.

Getting It Together: From Poems to Chapbook (with Robin Chapman, co-leader, at The Clearing, Door County, Wisconsin fall 2004)

How do you put together a poetry collection? In this week-long class, poets Judith Strasser and Robin Chapman start participants on the path to creating a chapbook of ten to twenty poems. Participants bring poems they may wish to include, and consider the problems of finding an order, filling the gaps, and revision. Judith and Robin meet individually with poets who would like comments on their chapbooks-in-progress. This class is designed for poets who are ready to go beyond individual poems, or who are at work on a new collection.

Writing our Place in the World (at Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, Wisconsin, summer 2003)

A sense of place has inspired many published poets and writers including Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop, Terry Tempest Williams and Aldo Leopold. In this day-long workshop, we use our sense of place to trigger our own writing (poetry or prose), and to help us explore our place in the world. This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to write! No previous writing experience is necessary.

Poetry in Our Lives Workshop for Packers Writers Circle (winter 2003, funded by Arts Alive!)

Judith met for an evening with young adults at the Packers Community Learning Center, discussing participants' poetry, offering suggestions for continuing a writing critique group, and discussing her own life and work as a poet.

Whose Woods These Are: The Poetry of Place (with Robin Chapman, co-leader, at The Clearing, Door County, Wisconsin spring 2002, spring 2003)

In this week-long class, poets Judith Strasser and Robin Chapman lead an exploration of the ways that natural history and landscape feed the poetic process. Participants read and discuss examples of place-oriented poetry by a wide variety of contemporary writers, and write and discuss their own poems, focused on the landscapes of The Clearing and northern Door County. Judith and Robin also meet individually with poets who would like comments on previously completed work. This class is designed for beginning and intermediate poets.

Finding Your Voice: It's Not Just On the Page (at Mexican Bob"s Poetry Camp, part of the Taos Poetry Circus, Taos, New Mexico, summer 2001)

In this two-day workshop, we focus on voice--both on the page and in performance. What does it mean to say that a poet has found her voice? Where could a voice be hiding? How can we find it and bring it out? Why are some poems easier to read aloud than others? Is there any relationship between our voice on the page and the way we sound when we read our poems aloud?