Corvallis Chapter Presents

Humor Writing for People Who Aren’t Funny (Yet) with Elissa Bassist

Register for the meeting here. A Zoom link will be sent to your email on the meeting day.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqcuurrjkoHdFLscnLgQkjToG-7Or8hhii

You don’t have to be born with a sense of humor to be funny and to write funny. “Funny” is a skill like any other. In this presentation, Elissa will break down the skill and gossip about how/when to use it to take your writing to the next level. She’ll share every known secret to joking with confidence about yourself, your life, and your world. Not to brag, but you can apply humor-writing tools and tricks to all writing, including memoirs, novels, and dating profiles. Writers of every level will learn concrete ways to use their own lives to be funnier in their writing. By the end of our time together, everyone will know 50-ish new devices to be funnier on the page and at parties, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s not our fault.

About Elissa Bassist

Elissa Bassist is the editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus and author of Hysterical, a semifinalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus,  she’s written cultural and personal criticism since the website launched in 2009. Previously, she wrote for The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and was the managing editor of The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her next book is INSIDE JOKES: A Comedy and Creativity Guide for All Writers—forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing in 2026. Elissa teaches humor writing at The New School, 92NY, and elsewhere, and she is probably her therapist’s favorite.

https://www.elissabassist.com/

About Your Chapter Meeting

Willamette Writers meetings are free and open to all writers, 18 and up. Guests are welcome to make a donation at https://willamettewriters.org/donations/ to help support the cost of the meetings. For information on how to become a Willamette Writers member, click here: https://willamettewriters.org/register/individual/

Wellness

Willamette Writers continue to encourage mask-wearing at our in-person, indoor meetings. If you feel sick, please stay home and join us at one of our online Chapter Meetings.

Young Writers

Young writers are encouraged to join our Young Willamette Writers meetings. Sign Up! Any high school or middle-grade writers are welcome to join us. Sign up for our email list at: http://eepurl.com/hRubBf. A registration link will be sent to our email list before our next meeting.

See you there!