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Lycanthrope Academy
for the shapeshifters
hybrid genre writing classes, book clubs, lectures, and workshops
The wolf is the protector of the threshold who roams liminality and guards the crossroads—much like Hecate, goddess of witchcraft. What if the dream world and the in-between could be invoked, written into, enacted? The lycanthrope, much like a werewolf, means "the form and characteristics of a wolf made possible by witchcraft or magic"—if you believe it to be possible, so it is. Lycanthrope Academy exists to have a place for the muses, the chaotic cocktail napkin scrawlers, the secret sirens covered in paint, the waitress witches in the backwoods. This is the place where the outcast meets the avant-garde, misfit means maven, and where writing can take any form it wants, which is why whether you choose to write in poetry, prose, mixed media, photo essay, collage—we're thrilled to have you. Each course syllabi could contain poetry, film, novella, album, sculpture, and more. Difference makes the world more interesting and more alive, and we'd be delighted to welcome you to our pack of artist-creatures.
Upcoming Courses
Poetics of Embodiment
Flesh and blood and desire! What are the haunted attics and kitchens of discontent holding for us? What about the boudoirs of secrets and the back porch to the wilderness of ourselves? How can writing and art help us name and navigate the many back rooms and feral oddities of ourselves? Let's escape cliche and really get into the dreamy, delicious, and strange limits and portals of our physicality.
Syllabus sneak-peek: poetry by Clarice Lispector and Bhanu Kapil, poetry by Donika Kelly and Anne Carson, film by David Lynch, literary theory by Hélène Cixous, horror theory by Julia Kristeva, Titane (film), paintings by Dorothea Tanning, performance art by Vincent Cassils, sound magic and poetry by Johanna Hedva
6 weeks — $310. Mondays 6-7:30pm EST
weekly readings, generative writing prompts, in-class discussion & writing feedback
Fanged Femme Book Club
Co-led with Alex Juarez of Queer Classics LA!
Come discuss hot weird books ranging from classic gothic novels to contemporary monsterfucker novellas with us. Each monthly book is paired with another piece of media (film, essay, album, etc ) to provide deeper insights and to provoke more depth in our insights. Come hang out with us, or just listen in like your personal queer literary podcast. We'll have guided discussion questions and some generative writing prompts inspired by each text.
Every first Thursday of the month 8:30-9:30 pm EST (5:30-6:30 PST). $22 per session
Oct 7th: Carmilla by Sheridan La Fanu (THE lesbian vampire novella!) + The Hunger, dir. Tony Scott
Nov 5th: Fledgling by Octavia Butler + Queen of the Damned, dir. Michael Rymer
Dec 3rd: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier + The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
December 3rd: Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls + The Shape of Water, dir. Guillermo del Toro
Monstrous Feminine
FREAKS UNITE! Female rage is all the rage for a reason—but let's get more unhinged about it. From lesbian vampires to covens of witches to enraged final girls, we will create our own definitions of monstrosity and plunge our incisors into its lusciously bestial, ferocious desires, and write into the kind of power that demands we make art from our own truths, and by our own pens.
Syllabus sneak-peek: Suspiria (film), Susan Stryker (essay), Carmilla (novella), Carmen Maria Machado (short story), Octavia Butler (novel), Leonora Carrington (art + interview), & more
6 weeks — $310 (sliding scale).
October 8th to November 12th. Thursdays 6-7:30pm EST
weekly readings, generative writing prompts, discussion, and writing feedback
Consider this some writer to writer accountability. Come write with me for an hour every Monday night. Some nights might go on longer, but no obligation to stay. I'll have an optional prompt each week to get us started, or you can arrive with something you just need to work on. Microphones off, no discussion, only writing. Just together! Just join and write. Every Monday, 8:00pm EST.
Feel free to donate a buck or two to keep the lights on; but otherwise, Writer's Salon is free to join.
Writer's Hour
Why Lycanthrope?
Lycanthrope Academy revels in writing that goes between, beyond, stops abruptly, that you aren’t sure if it qualifies (it does), writing that pays no mind (or is self-aware and excited to transgress) the preconceived boundaries it’s hurtling across. All of this shapeshifting work, no matter the genre, can find a generative, supportive, and empowering workshop community right here. While this is at its root, a writing school, we welcome and celebrate artists coming from other mediums, as well as any lovers of curiosity who want to try something new within a community of creative care.
Founder and Headmistress of Lycanthrope Academy, Leia K. Bradley has taught Monster Studies, Queer Poetry, Gender & Sexuality, Contemporary Essays, and more. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and a BFA in Writing from Pratt Institute, has taught writing all over NYC and beyond, and believes everyone should have access to arts and writing education—not just those in academia. She has work in POETRY Magazine, West Trade Review, Southern Humanities Review, BOOTH Journal, DIAGRAM, and more, with her epistolary poetry collection VENUS IN TRANSIT out with Red Hen Press in June 2o27. For more on the author and her work, find her website here.