The Attic Institute

The Attic Institute is sort of an emperor’s new clothes. Cheryl Strayed’s picture as an instructor is on the website but when I asked about her class, it turns out Strayed hasn’t taught there for four years. Same with the poet Mathew Dickman. They just put up photos to get people to sign up.
But as for the other two classes I took, the opposite of good and given the cost and lack of a refund, the Attic is highway robbery.
I was accepted to the Atheneum Writer’s, which was super expensive and didn’t really get any feedback from the instructor, Jennifer Lauck. She’s really entertaining, funny even, but talks a lot about herself, her process, her own memoir from 15 years ago. She snubbed other writers in the class she didn’t like. In her memoir class, she read from her own rough draft manuscript. Huh? How was this helpful? Then, and this is what seemed unprofessional, she said you could pay her more money, privately, for her to review your work. To which I thought, that’s why we’re in the class, right? But she used the class to get more work. She chewed out a student after class for voicing her opinions and it was creepy, talking to her like that.
In emails and phone messages to David Biespiel, he just blew me off and said, «Some people really love Lauck, some people don’t. The Atheneum is great process.» David B. is just collecting a paycheck and letting JL run the joint, since she teaches so many classes.
Liz Prato was the only good instructor, gave helpful, specific comments, but hers was the cheapest and shortest workshop/​class.

When I saw Naomi’s review (6÷4÷2013) of Jennifer Lauck’s memoir class I felt compelled to add my experience too. I was recently asked to leave Jennifer’s class because I challenged her reading her own rough draft and asking the students for critique. Next we were assigned to print out her 30 page draft and bring it to class for more review! I reminded her that as students, we are only allowed to bring 5 pages of writing to class and I was sure any of us would greatly appreciate more time spent on our own writing instead of hers. I was offered a $ 46 refund out of the $ 338 I paid for the 6 week class and told to leave! Naomi wrote her review 2 years ago. Apparently nothing has changed.

I’m surprised to see that the Attic only has one review, and that it’s a negative one, and that Unilocal seems to think it is closed. It’s definitely alive and well, and Portland writers are lucky to have such a gem of an establishment in our city. I write short fiction and I’ve taken several workshops at the Attic. Each one enriched my work and my personal community of fellow writers. It’s like anything — you get back what you put in. Writing is a lonely job, but taking an occasional workshop makes it a little less so.