5150 : a creative writing workshop

FOUR WEDNESDAYS in SEPTEMBER
7-8:30pm ET (4-5:30pm PT)

5150 is a creative writing workshop focused on that which gets called mental illness, madness, insanity, craziness, hysteria, psychosis, fury, delirium, lunacy, and/or any number of overdetermined psychiatric diagnoses listed in the 1,152 pages of the DSM-5.

We won’t be particularly concerned with Freud or Jung or Lacan, and we’ll devote approximately zero time to debating diagnostic criteria or the pros and cons of MAOIs. Instead, we are primarily focused on the representation of psychological instability in text, in poems and stories and diaries and essays, and more specifically the way in which we depict our own struggling on the page. Communicating this kind of story or state from inside-of-it to someone on the outside-of-it presents a unique set of challenges and it’s worth our time to think through them carefully with other people who just fucking get it.

Shout out to Dorothy Parker. Shout out to Sylvia Plath.

This is obviously not therapy, and I’m obviously not a therapist, and I don’t even have that much interest in therapy as a discipline tbh.

But dream boy book club was founded during my fourth stay in rehab, and our first book came out while I was on an involuntary hold at a neuropsychiatric hospital in Los Angeles, so we’ve always had a very specific relationship with mental health and its treatment in our lil corner of the literary world. Many of us do. And that’s meaningful.

Cool grippy socks not required (but encouraged).

NOTE: all workshop participants should have at least one story/essay/substack/article to share/work with during our meetings. It doesn’t have to be polished, but I will be asking us to share our work with each other, and provide one another with supportive actionable feedback.

WHAT: four online workshop sessions + written notes on your work.

WHEN: four WEDNESDAYS in SEPTEMBER at 7-8:30pm ET (4-5:30pm PT). 9/2, 9/9, 9/16, 9/23

WHERE: zoom

WHO: all workshops are facilitated by Jonathan Blake Fostar, publisher / editor-in-chief of dream boy book club.

COST: the total tuition for this workshop is $199. Payment plans are available.

Should your plans change, cancellations will receive a 50% refund  if requested before August 26, 2026. No refunds will be provided after that date.

WHAT NEXT? Please click the button below 👇 to complete the brief application. You will receive an admissions email within the week. Your spot in the course is not guaranteed until payment is received.

Email any questions to jonathan@dreamboybook.club!

Blessssssssss 😇 🙏 ✨

PREVIOUS COURSE OFFERINGS:

PURE SLEAZE: the more vulgar, filthy, chic corners of contemporary lit. (August 2026)

SUMMER SCHOOL: an introductory workshop open to writers of all genres. (June 2026)

HOT TABLOID TRASH: autofiction, memoir, diary, tabloid, spectacle, scandal, etc. (May 2026)

ST. LANA: creative writing through the lens of Lana Del Rey. (April 2026)

POETRY FOR PILLOW PRINCESSES: an introductory workshop open to writers of all genres. (December 2025)

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME: novels, full-length poetry collections, and other long-form writing projects. (July 2025)

GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING TO A LINDSAY LOHAN-ORIENTED SUMMER CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: creative writing through the lens of Lindsay Lohan. (June 2025)

THE POETICS OF PARIS HILTON: creative writing through the lens of Paris Hilton. (April 2025)

SUNDAY SCHOOL: an introductory workshop open to writers of all genres. (multiple sessions)

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