1. Are Kathryn Aalto’s creative writing courses suitable for beginners?
Absolutely. Every course Kathryn teaches is designed to welcome writers wherever they are — whether you are putting words on a page for the first time or bringing years of writing experience to a new genre. Narrative nonfiction is a form that rewards beginners precisely because it begins with what you already have: your life, your observations, your singular way of moving through the world. No prior publication or formal training is required to begin.
Courses are structured across four levels to ensure that every writer is working at the right level of challenge and support:
Level 1 — Foundational courses for writers new to narrative nonfiction and creative nonfiction. These courses introduce the essential craft elements of the form: scene-building, voice, structure, and the art of telling true stories well. This is where your practice begins.
Levels 2–3 — Intermediate courses for writers who have completed a Level 1 course, a comparable programme elsewhere, or who apply with a writing sample demonstrating readiness. These courses deepen and extend the foundational work, introducing more complex techniques of structure, character, and form.
Levels 3–4 — Advanced courses for experienced writers working at the higher edges of the craft: nuanced voice, architectural structure, layered dialogue, the ethics of writing about real people, and the particular demands of writing toward publication.
If you are unsure which level is right for you, Kathryn offers a free consultation. Book a time here.
2. What kind of feedback will I receive on my writing?
The feedback in Kathryn’s courses is one of the things students describe most consistently and most warmly. It is detailed, constructive, and genuinely personal — the kind of close reading that writers often spend years searching for and rarely find.
Kathryn provides written feedback on every submission using her reMarkable device, which allows her to annotate your work by hand — margin notes, underlinings, questions in the text — in a way that feels like sitting across a table from an editor who is fully invested in your work. Feedback addresses the full range of craft: syntax, word choice, rhythm, and sentence-level precision alongside the larger questions of structure, voice, theme, and what the piece is ultimately trying to do and say.
The tone is always one of genuine engagement. Kathryn’s feedback supports, encourages, and challenges in equal measure — rigorous enough to push your writing forward, warm enough to make the process feel like collaboration rather than critique. Many students describe her notes as the most useful writing feedback they have ever received.
3. What kinds of assignments and exercises are typical in these courses?
Courses combine in-class exercises — often exploratory, experimental, and done in real time together — with self-directed at-home reading and writing assignments that give you space to work at your own pace and follow your own material.
Assignment expectations vary by level:
Level 1 — 2 to 4 pages of sketches, experimental scenes, and personal essays every two weeks. The emphasis is on generating material freely and building the habit of regular writing, without the pressure of producing polished work before the tools are in place.
Levels 2–4 — 4 to 10 pages every two weeks, with increasing depth of revision and craft awareness expected. At these levels, assignments begin to connect into larger, more sustained pieces of writing — the kind that could, with continued work, move toward publication.
Across all levels, assignments are designed to balance variety and creative freedom. You are never locked into a prescribed subject or form. The writing you bring to these courses is your own — drawn from your life, your research, your obsessions — and Kathryn’s teaching meets you there.
4. Can taking a narrative nonfiction writing course with Kathryn lead to publication?
Yes — and it already has, for many of Kathryn’s students. But it takes more than a single course, which is a genuine step toward publication. It gives you essential craft skills, a clearer understanding of what your writing is doing and what it needs, and the confidence that comes from having your work taken seriously by an expert reader.
That said, publication in serious literary journals and with reputable publishers is a long game. It requires an investment in time along with persistence, sustained revision, and a working knowledge of the industry — how to submit, where to submit, how to respond to rejection, and how to keep going. Most of Kathryn’s students who go on to publish have taken more than four courses, participated in workshops, masterclasses, mentoring, and committed to their practice over time. This mirrors, in structure and rigour, what an MFA programme in narrative nonfiction offers — at a fraction of the cost and with the advantage of complete focus on the genre that is actually yours.
Publication is not guaranteed. But Kathryn’s courses give you the tools, the feedback, the community, and the direction to pursue it with genuine seriousness. Several students have gone on to publish in respected literary journals, contribute to major publications, and complete book-length works of narrative nonfiction that began as course assignments.
5. How does a narrative nonfiction course with Kathryn Aalto compare to an MFA or MA in Creative Writing — and what does a postgraduate degree actually cost?
This is a question worth answering honestly, because the answer may change how you think about your options.
A Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at a US university typically costs between $30,000 and $70,000 in tuition alone — and can exceed $100,000 at private institutions when living costs are included. In the UK, an MA in Creative Writing at a reputable university currently runs between £9,000 and £18,000 for a single year of study. These programmes are broad by design: they cover multiple genres, require academic coursework alongside creative work, and culminate in a thesis or portfolio that may or may not be the book you actually want to write.
Kathryn’s courses offer something that no MFA can: complete, laser-focused immersion in narrative nonfiction — the specific genre of memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, and nature writing — taught by a New York Times bestselling author with over twenty-five years of teaching experience, in a live, interactive setting with a small cohort of serious writers from around the world.
Every lecture, every exercise, every piece of feedback is oriented toward a single question: how do you write true stories at the highest possible level? There are no electives in genres you don’t write. No seminars on subjects peripheral to your practice. No academic hoops to jump through. Just the craft, the community, the feedback, and the direct path toward the writing life you are working toward.
For writers who know that narrative nonfiction is their sole form and focus, working with Kathryn Aalto rivals — and in its focus, may surpass — what a university programme delivers, at a cost that makes sustained study genuinely accessible.
6. Who will my classmates be?
Writers from around the world, at every stage of their creative lives. Kathryn’s courses draw students from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Asia, and beyond — a genuinely international community brought together by a drive for excellence in narrative nonfiction and a shared commitment to writing true stories well.
This breadth of perspective is one of the quiet gifts of the programme. The experiences, voices, and cultural contexts that your classmates bring to their writing will expand and enrich your own. Writers who have studied together in Kathryn’s courses often describe the community they find there as one of the most lasting benefits — creative friendships and reading partnerships that continue long after the course ends.
Courses are capped at sixteen participants to preserve the intimacy and depth of engagement that makes this kind of community possible. In a class this size, everyone is known. Everyone’s writing is read. Everyone’s voice matters.
7. Where can I read excellent examples of narrative nonfiction to deepen my understanding of the genre?
One of the best things you can do alongside any writing course is read widely and attentively in the form — not just for pleasure, but with craft in mind. The following journals and resources represent the heart of the narrative nonfiction world, and returning to them regularly will make you a sharper, more ambitious writer.
Creative Nonfiction — the founding journal of the genre, established by Lee Gutkind, the writer and editor who named and defined creative nonfiction as a literary form. An essential destination for anyone serious about the genre.
Hippocampus Magazine — one of the finest online publications devoted exclusively to personal essay and creative nonfiction. A welcoming home for emerging voices alongside established writers, and an excellent guide to what the best contemporary work in the form looks like.
River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative — a flagship literary journal for narrative nonfiction, combining long-form essays and memoir with critical writing about the form. Their weekly micro-essay series, Beautiful Things, is one of the most quietly extraordinary things on the internet: essays of 250 words or fewer that find beauty and meaning in the texture of daily life.
Narrative Magazine — a prestigious, free-to-read online library of fiction, essays, poetry, and nonfiction by celebrated and emerging writers. A place to read widely, encounter new voices, and understand what serious literary ambition looks like across forms.
Reading these journals will not only develop your craft — it will show you where your work might one day live.
8. Can I pay my course tuition in instalments?
Yes. Kathryn’s writing school is committed to making serious literary education as accessible as possible, and tuition can be arranged across two to four monthly payments to suit your circumstances. If an instalment plan would make the course more manageable, simply get in touch directly at kathryn@kathrynaalto.com to arrange a schedule that works for you. No complicated process — just a straightforward conversation. Upon payment, there are options through PayPal to pay in instalments.
