Welcome from Gabriella Fee, Inaugural Writer in Residence 2026-2027
Discover a new chapter in Odyssey’s lifelong learning offerings—an inspiring series of creative writing courses made possible by the generous support of Elizabeth Moser. Launching in Fall 2025, the Moser Family Writer in Residence initiative brings a renewed emphasis on the literary arts through online courses, engaging lectures, and immersive, place-based experiences.
We’re thrilled to welcome back Gabriella Fee, A&S ’22 (MFA), for a second year as Moser Family Writer in Residence. Gabriella is a poet, educator, and advocate for accessible arts education, and she brings a dynamic vision for fostering creativity across generations and geographies.
“We are also thrilled to offer a new suite of classes, all taught by alumni of the Writing Seminars. Whether you are a fiction writer, a memoirist, a poet, or simply a curious reader, I’m confident we have something coming up that will speak to you. As you explore our offerings, I encourage you to try something you’ve never tried before. It’s easy to feel perfectionistic about our writing. What might become possible when we move away from perfection toward curiosity, creativity, and community?”
—Gabriella Fee
Read Gabriella’s full welcome letter and bio »
Moser Family Writing Courses
Registration for fall courses opening soon!
| Course | Instructor |
|---|---|
| Prose Poetry & Flash Fiction Tuesday August 25 – September 29 10:00am – 12:00pm ET In this class, we’ll play at the boundary of poetry and prose. We’ll think about what constitutes a poem in the absence of its most recognizable feature: the line, and what constitutes a short story where narrative meets intense compression. Through close reading and weekly writing exercises, we’ll explore questions of craft that are central to writing well across genre: how do you create, maintain, and diffuse moments of lyric intensity? How do you channel energy efficiently toward the heart of a story? How do you make use of the sentence as a unit of music and meaning? No prior writing experience required—just curiosity about the expansive possibilities of brevity! | Gabriella Fee, A&S ’22 (MFA) |
| The Many Voices of Louise Glück Saturdays August 29 – October 3 2:00pm – 4:00pm ET In 2020, when the Swedish Academy named the American poet Louise Glück as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, they cited her “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Glück’s consistent themes (as she put it, “the great human subjects: time which breeds loss, desire, the world’s beauty”) earned her many honors and many readers, yet her thirteen books of poems showcase a protean, ever-changing way of writing. This course will reckon with the lasting gift of Glück’s many unmistakable voices. Our journey through Glück’s poems will be punctuated by relevant selections from her literary criticism and autobiographical prose. In addition, there will be opportunities to create and workshop original work inspired by what we read, shared for peer and instructor feedback. Participants need no prior writing experience or knowledge about poetry. | Nathan Blansett, A&S ’21 (MFA) |
| Confessional Poetry: Masks and Mirrors Tuesdays October 20 – December 1 7:00pm – 9:00pm ET In this course, we will experiment with techniques to explore the depth of our individual subjectivity, examining ourselves without losing sight of the outside world that grounds and connects us. We will consider the power of metaphor, allusion, and connotation as vehicles for expressing deeply held emotions. Funneling our most urgent concerns through the imaginative landscapes of pop culture, literature, nature, and history will allow us to reach toward emotional truth without necessarily revealing intimate details of our lives. By engaging in a variety of generative experiments (prompts), we’ll embrace the use of metaphorical masks and mirrors, inviting different voices—different “selves”—into our work. This course is open to all levels and does not require any prior experience writing poetry. Your writing and inspiration will be guided and supplemented by writing exercises, and you’ll receive feedback from both myself (instructor) and your peers during the workshop. | Jalen Eutsey, A&S ’18 (MFA)  |
| Contemporary Korean Science and Speculative Fiction Sundays October 25 – December 6 3:00pm – 5:00pm ET From the rapid industrialization under dictatorship of the 1970s to the democratization movement in 1987, South Korean science fiction has been a way to represent the South Korean political unconscious. In the introduction to the anthology, Readymade Bodhisattva, editor Sunyoung Park notes, “Science fiction is a rising and ever-shifting genre in South Korea today. Inspired by the activism of the past decades, more and more writers see the genre as the creative laboratory for reflecting on the opportunities and contradictions of modernization in a late-capitalist and postcolonial society.” More than ever, global audiences are familiar with South Korean visual media, but what about fiction? Over the course of six weeks, we will read a sampling of works published between 2005 and 2019 to find inspiration and possibility in the speculative imagination. In this class, we will get a chance to explore science fiction as a literature of ideas, and discover the critical relevance of these works as commentary on contemporary social, political, and environmental issues. In addition to the primary text, Readymade Bodhisattva, which includes works by Kim Bo-young, Kim Young-ha, Djuna, and Bok Geo-il, we will also read works by Kim Cho-yeop and Bora Chung, among others, to find ways to imagine outside our current circumstances and into another world. You’ll draft and workshop an exploratory draft your own speculative short story. This is a beginner level course. No prior writing experience required. | Jane S. Kim, A&S ’25 (MFA) |
About Moser Family Gift
The Moser Gift is a generous and inspiring investment in creative expression and lifelong learning at Johns Hopkins. Made possible by Elizabeth Moser, A&S ’66, this special gift supports two new initiatives that will help grow and enrich the Odyssey Program—offered through the Johns Hopkins Office of Alumni Relations—for years to come: The Moser Writer-in-Residence for Odyssey Fund and The Moser Fund for Tuition Remission.
The Moser Writer-in-Residence Fund brings fresh creative energy to the Hopkins alumni community. Each year, a celebrated writer—whether a poet, screenwriter, or author—will join us to lead a dynamic creative writing series. Think: exclusive courses, literary-themed excursions, and public readings that spark conversation and connection. It’s all about inspiring new voices and celebrating the power of storytelling.
The Moser Fund for Tuition Remission helps make Odyssey courses more accessible by offering tuition support to alumni. By lowering financial barriers, this fund invites more people to join in, explore new topics, and keep learning—whether for personal growth, creative exploration, or professional development.
Looking for more ways to sharpen your writing skills?
We continue to offer a variety of alumni and community led courses designed for writers of all levels. Discover additional writing opportunities and explore the full catalog of Odyssey offerings.