Easthampton, MA
Frequently asked questions
What are your after-school creative writing workshops like?
Sessions typically start with a quick writing prompt or game followed by a related lesson and group discussion. Then, students spend time on a writing project of their choice--whether it’s a short story, a collection of poems, a graphic novel, an op-ed, a play, or something else entirely.
For students who aren’t sure what to write, we help brainstorm or give tried-and-tested writing prompts (we’ve got hundreds!).
For students who already know what they want to write, we provide the support to make that happen, whether that’s feedback, encouragement, or even just a quiet space to sit with a notebook.
How many students are there per class?
Our workshops have an eight-student cap.
I heard you don’t care about spelling or grammar??!
It’s true--in our creative writing workshops, we tell students not to worry about spelling and grammar while they’re writing.
Stopping to look up every word or adhering to complicated rules can throw off the creative process. Plus, we live in a world with spell-check--it’s easy to make corrections later.
Language is a socially constructed system that is continuously evolving. We rewrite its rules every day, and young people are often a key part of that process.
We know our students have plenty to say, even if they can’t spell all the words or write them in the kind of grammatical English expected in most schools. By removing barriers to writing, we help students build confidence and skills at the same time.
What are your college essay workshops like?
We offer a weekly workshop for high school seniors who are actively working on their college application essays.
These days, college applicants need to do more than just write polished essays. They need to write essays that will stand out from the AI-written masses. With ChatGPT, anyone can make an essay look polished on the surface. But it’s much harder to do the thing schools are looking for--to tell them an authentic story about who you are and what you’re about.
At Somehow School, we help high school students who are applying to college write memorable, authentic essays that don’t sound like they were written by a robot.
Where are you located?
83 Main St., Easthampton MA, 01027.
What’s your space like?
Somehow School is located in a historic storefront built in 1848. Our classroom is 500 sq. ft. with 12-foot ceilings and an exposed brick wall and a view of Mt. Tom out the window. We have a variety of places to write in the room, including a seminar table and comfy armchairs.
What if my kid is sick? What’s your policy on missed classes?
Please keep your kid at home if they’re sick! If a student misses a week due to illness, email us at info@somehowschool.org to request a voucher for a free week in their next Somehow School course. What’s your refund policy?
For eight-week workshops If a student can no longer attend and the workshop has not yet started, we’ll provide a full refund.
If a student has attended two classes or fewer in an eight-week workshop and then must drop the class, we’ll provide a 50% refund.
If a student has attended three classes or more, we can no longer provide a refund if they drop the class.
What’s tutoring like?
For some students, one-on-one instruction works better than taking a group class. We provide custom instruction in everything from writing poems to novels to creative nonfiction. We also do college application essay tutoring. Tutoring takes place at our 83 Main St. location. We also tutor students virtually.
Why are you called the Somehow School?
“Related somehow they may be,
The sedge stands near the sea –”
-Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson used to write poems on whatever was lying around--scraps of envelopes, or the backs of recipes. Because the pieces of paper were all different shapes and sizes, the poems changed to fit their containers--some poems shrinking to only a few words long, some lines stretching across whole envelopes.
The way you write something changes what you write. Writing a story by hand, you’ll use different words than you would on your smartphone. Typing with a typewriter is a totally different experience than typing on a computer.
At Somehow School, we pay attention to these differences and use them to grow our writing practices. We experiment: what happens when we write a poem in all caps while listening to music? What’s it like to write a poem all in lowercase while sitting in complete silence?
Somehow, the writing will get written. At Somehow School, we focus on the how.
In the age of AI, why is it important for kids to practice creative writing?
AI has made un-creative writing much easier. A robot can spit out a five-paragraph essay or even write a mediocre novel.
But good writing, the kind of writing you remember, is built on surprise--on combining words in new, exciting ways. Good writing breaks the rules. Good writing is a little strange just like people are a little strange. It’s what makes writing (and people) interesting.
An AI, meanwhile, can only imitate what it’s already seen. It can’t think outside the box, or come up with new ideas.
Somehow School helps young writers build the skills AI will never have--to communicate creatively, to think critically, and to imagine a better world.
Do you provide materials?
We provide all materials for students to use during classes, including pens & pencils, notebooks, very old laptops, and typewriters.
Why do you use old laptops and typewriters in your classes?
We provide outdated but functional laptops (and occasionally typewriters) for students to write with during workshops. Using old machines provides a sense of novelty while also limiting distractions; you can’t browse the internet on them. This practice also helps prevent e-waste and encourages students to think sustainably about technology.
How old are the laptops?
Mostly MacBooks from 2009. 2009? Aren’t those basically inoperable?
These computers can’t function on the modern internet. But we don’t use the modern internet in our classes. At Somehow School, students use Microsoft Word 2008 to write. Each student is issued a flash drive upon which to store their Word documents. Everyone will also have the opportunity to email their files to themselves after each class, and to print their files out during each class. And Somehow School staff back up the students’ flash drives weekly on a more modern computer.
Do you offer reduced tuition or scholarships?
We recognize that our fees aren’t affordable to every family. To address this, we plan to transition to a sliding-scale tuition model. In the meantime, we’re able to offer a limited number of need-based scholarships.If you can’t afford our fee but want to enroll your child in a Somehow School program, email us at info@somehowschool.org with “scholarship request” in the subject line. In the email, let us know which class your child would like to enroll in, and an amount you’d feel comfortably able to pay for the class, even if it’s zero dollars. We’ll write back and let you know if we’re able to accommodate your request.