katie lee ellison

I split work early yesterday for a sweet date with Greta Gerwig (actress and writer) and Noah Baumbach (writer and director)–one of my absolute favorite writing teams–to see Mistress America this afternoon. It was like seeing old friends.

SPOILER ALERT: The image above–thank you deadline.com–is toward the end of the movie, after Tracy (Lola Kirke’s character) violates a trust in their friendship by writing a beautiful piece of “fiction” based on Brooke, Greta Gerwig’s character. The many ways that Gerwig and Baumbach explore the profound love in female friendship never leaves my eyes dry, and it often reminds me of my girlfriends. SPOILER OVER

I’ve been thinking about close relationships a lot lately as Carolyn and I build this incredible workshop (launches in less than two weeks, y’all!). And the two of us have been considering famous literary matches and writing teams that have produced incredible work. (BTW: Did you hear J.Law and Amy Schumer are finishing up their first script together? And then dancing on pianos to celebrate?) The more I think about my heroes–Virginia Woolf, Amy Poehler, Toni Morrison, and countless others–I can also think of the fellow writers, friends, lovers, family, and spouses that made their writing possible, and better than it would have otherwise been.

Mistress America is, in part, about the connections that make for incredible writing and stories. Nearly anywhere you look in literary history, past or present, I dare you not to find a profound relationship or web of relationships behind beautiful work.

This is why we’re teaching this class. We want to build your community, and ours. We want you to have access to our brains for guidance because we know how important it’s been to have access to writers who’ve come before us. We want you in our inner circle. We know you want in, too.

So pass the word along. Get your friends involved. (We’re still offering that 2-for-$200-each discount for writer friends. To get access to that deal, email us at ck2015workshop@gmail.com.)

Don’t keep writing all by your lonesome. Write with us. Click here.