Writing with Constraints
Discover the Unexpected or the Unusual by Working with Limits
A 4 week Online Creative Writing Workshop with Perrins Kerns
Tuesdays, February 3,10,17,24
6:00-8:00pm Pacific Time
Registration: $240 or $215 for Fishtrappers
Is the registration fee an obstacle for you to attend this workshop? Fishtrap offers a limited number of scholarships to help with the cost. Contact Program Director Mike Midlo for more information. mike@fishtrap.org
Sometimes, freedom is found within the boundaries of constraints. In this workshop, we will write to prompts but with a twist. Each prompt will also come with some form of constraint or a series of constraints (i.e., write in the present tense, write only in the second person, write the experience from end to beginning, etc.) We will be working towards a series of prose poems or a lyric essay or a personal essay, but using prompts that push us as writers to find new adventures in our writing.
Perrin Kerns has been teaching creative writing for over 30 years. For many of those years, she served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University. More recently she has been teaching literature, creative nonfiction, and digital storytelling at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, Prescott College, PNCA’s MFA, Portland State University, Literary Arts, and Fishtrap. Her own creative work has taken her from the lyric essay to digital storytelling to personal narrative documentaries based on her lyric essays.

Date and Time
Tuesday Feb 3, 2026
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM PST
Tuesdays, February 3,10,17,24, 2026
6-8 PM
Location
Online
Fees/Admission
Registration: $240 or $215 for Fishtrappers