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Dear Friend: Free Letter-Writing Session — July 9, 2026

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Dear Friend is a free, single-session Zoom gathering for the letters you haven’t written yet.

We’ll spend an hour in good company reading aloud from some of history’s most beloved correspondences, then we’ll sit down together to write.

Maybe it’s time to send a love note to a friend you’ve been meaning to reach out to for months, maybe years. Or a letter to someone you’ve lost. You might feel inspired to write a letter to your younger self or a letter to someone you’d never send it to — but feel the need to write anyway. Bring some paper and we’ll find the words together.

Thursday, July 9 · 2:00–3:00 pm ET

Price: free upon registration

Workshop leader: Leigh Hopkins

Dear Friend is part of Connection Circles, Viva Institute’s free ongoing gatherings for big thinkers.

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Tell Me Everything: A Four-Week Personal Essay Workshop

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Tell Me Everything A Four-Week Personal Essay Workshop

The story is already in you. This is where you write it.

Date: October 5, 2026

Workshop Leader: Leigh Hopkins

This four-week workshop is for writers at any stage who are ready to get a publishable personal essay out into the world. Each week, we’ll meet live on Zoom to read and discuss essays together, dig into things like voice and style and narrative arc, and then we’ll write together. Whether you’ve published dozens of essays or you’re finding your voice as a writer for the first time, you’ll leave with a complete draft and a community of writers who believe that your words matter.

You’ll have supplemental materials to work with between sessions, including suggested readings across a range of essay styles. Braided essays, narrative, descriptive, lyric, hybrid, political, persuasive…what do they all mean, and where does your story fit? That’s what we’re talking about. And, of course, you’ll have weekly assignments to keep the momentum going and get your story on the page. 

This workshop is for anyone who knows the pieces of their life have something important to say and is ready for the world to read it.