Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing

Yesterday I completed a 1-​day session on memoir with Ripe Fruit School, having taken the 1-​day Writing Faith (intro) class a few months before. For me, Ripe Fruit is a perfect fit and has accelerated my writing projects – and reignited my passion for writing – in a way that no other writing instruction has done. Leslie Kirk-​Campbell is a very capable, knowledgable, and most importantly, supportive teacher. There is no great writing or bad writing, just your own experience and suggestions around how to deepen it through the written word. That support, plus the various free writing and other exercises Leslie offers, produce an explosion of written creativity. Thank you Leslie and Ripe Fruit. I look forward to taking one of your multi-​week classes in the near future!

I recently finished taking «The Art of Languaging» 9-​week workshop and would highly recommend it. I had never taken a writing course before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found at The Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing was a inventive, knowledgeable and supportive teacher, Leslie Kirk-​Campbell, a beautiful environment in the «garden of imagination» at her lovely home in Noe Valley and interesting new acquaintances, unpublished and published, who shared the same love of language as I did.
This course left me with a new appreciation for language and its uses. We worked on various aspects of image, sound, rhythm, tone and imagination with weekly exercises designed to hone our skills in these and other areas. If you have always loved to write and would like to begin a regular writing practice or spark your already existing practice, this is the definitely the school for you.

As a professional speaker of thirty years who has traveled the globe to inspire thousands, life has forced me to journey down a path that is uncommon to most humans. I have been challenged by my audiences to provide them with a book so they may revisit my program at various times in their life. The assignment was difficult and I discovered myself feeling more like a verbal story teller and most certainly not a writer. I contacted Leslie at the Ripe Fruit and inquired about hiring her to be my written voice. Despite her high qualifications and willingness to assist me with my request, she encouraged me to take «one» class. It was the best suggestion I’ve received in a long time. The class was educational, inspiring and soulfully invigorating. Leslie tactfully facilitated the unique personalities and needs of each individual. I left with the necessary skills to continue on as a «writer» and proceed successfully. I now know what I don’t know and more importantly, I know where I need to go within myself to discover the rest of the story.. and how to get there. Receiving the necessary tools and techniques to be artfully articulate in the written word was worth every penny.

This is the response I got from ripe fruit write writing owner Leslie. I was very brief in my review, but if you want to know the whole story, buy her book on amazon for $.01. I took her course and I paid $ 100.00 cash. It wasn’t good. She claims to have no record of it, but that doesn’t change my opinion or the editorial content of my review. «bogus» is not the word to describe my experience. «waste of money» or «i think she may be looking for good material to plagiarize» or «she does try to control the response and feelings of her prior students», would be a better way to describe my experience. It doesn’t matter to me if she doesn’t remember me I remember her class for $ 100.
«Hi Aimee. I don’t remember you so I checked my accounting books with the names of all my students over the last four years and your name was not there. Ripe Fruit Writing has had all rave reviews, including in the unrecommended reviews (all of which are authentic.) One other person a few years ago, who also had never taken our course, made some nasty remarks. Did you ever take a workshop or class with us? What prompted you to write a negative review of something you have never done? (By the way, the clue that your review is bogus is that I have no classes or workshops that cost $ 100.) Would appreciate a reply to explain this review. Thank you.

Being in a room with committed writers was motivating and inspiring. It was a creative environment where everyone’s work was vauled and nourished.

I recently took the 1-​day Writing Faith class and was extremely impressed by the whole experience. It was my first writing class, and I felt very comfortable due to the relaxed, authentic atmosphere. It felt like great value for my $. Beautiful, inviting, comfortable space; provocative & creative writing exercises; friendly, non-​threatening group sharing. The class was definitely confidence boosting and gave me some helpful new tools that I look forward to using on my own at home. It’s good to know there is on-​going support and structure for continuing to develop my skills if I decide to move in that direction. Thank you so much Leslie for such an enriching day! Sahina

In 2008 I timidly enrolled in the Art of Languaging at Ripe Fruit located Noe Valley, San Francisco. Five years later I continue to learn from poetry, memoir, fiction and non-​fiction from the teaching and feedback skills of Leslie Kirk Campbell. She supports participants, emerging writers of all genres to be better readers and we write and we write. Consult one-​on-​one. Take a one day workshop or the whole series. Start. The Greenhouse of Imagination is a place of wonder for the exploring practitioner. Bring your writing pad and two pens.

I put off my desire to write for years, and then I finally signed up for Leslie’s Ripe Fruit One-​Day Intensive workshop, The Writing Faith. I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for her other One-​Day Intensive workshop, Soulfood. My writing started to blossomed, so I continued on with RIPE FRUIT I: The Art of Languaging
Finding & Expanding Your Voice and from there, Soulfood Memoir Writing. To say that my writing has grown tremendously over the past year is an understatement. Through Leslie’s thoughtful guidance of in-​class writing exercises and weekly home assignments, my creativity was cultivated to a new level of awareness. Best of all, I enjoy the writing process so much more.
If you want to be a more thoughtful and intuitive writer, then join Leslie at her wonderfully warm home for Ripe Fruit classes. I cherished every class, in the comfort of her living room with other like-​minded writers.

I have taken a lot of writing workshops over many years. The Ripe Fruit School of Writing is the best place to take writing classes that I have found. It is inspiring and you can benefit from the guidance of an experienced writer, namely Leslie Kirk-​Campbell.
One of the things I like best, and which is different from most other writing workshops offered locally, is that Ripe Fruit has a clear sequence of classes. That way, you can move through the series with a group of writers who share a common language for talking about writing, and who have a similar level of experience. Many writing workshops have 8 or 10 week sessions, and then you have to start over with a new group of people at all different levels of writing experience. After I had been writing for awhile, I found this challenging. In contrast, with the five class sequence at Ripe Fruit, you can choose to develop your writing over the course of a few years with a like-​minded group of writers.
The most valuable thing I learned from Leslie, and something that she is superb at teaching, was how to revise and edit my own writing. I have always loved to write, and I have always hated to revise my writing. These classes showed me how to do it in a way that was enjoyable and productive. My writing has grown tremendously over the past few years, and I owe it largely to these workshops. I’m looking forward to taking another one as soon as I get a chance.
If you love to write, if you want to find out how to activate your writing voice, and if you want to find a community of writers to grow with, try out the Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing. It has been a wonderful experience for me.

Leslie saved my creative life. After years of putting off my desire to write, I finally signed up for the «Art of Languaging: Finding and Expanding Your Voice» on the recommendation of a friend. It was the best thing I could have done. Through wonderful in-​class writing exercises and weekly home assignments, Leslie helped us cultivate our creativity, taught wonderful insights on the craft of writing & poetry of the sentence, and best of all – erased all fear and nervousness from our minds.
After that class, I went on to take Soulfood Memoir writing and Prose Poetry & the Art of Editing with her. They were worth every penny and I have some wonderful pieces of writing that I created under Leslie’s mentorship. Most importantly, I’ve learned to trust my writer’s voice and have been given a wonderful set of tools and knowledge and insight. I cherished those evening classes in her comfortable living room in the company of other writers.
If you want to take a class that will not only teach you craft, but cultivate your love and passion for the written word, Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing is for you!

Leslie is amazing! She is warm, personable, and creative! The classes were closed groups with a small number of people which created an atmosphere of safety and camaraderie. Leslie teaches awesome exercises for getting the creative juices flowing and her assignments were invaluable. I learned so much and made life-​long friends!

this woman and place was not good. she basically gives u writing exercises that equate with free writing. i am not sure if she is an accomplished writer at all either. the few other «suckers» that were there took off at the break. save urself the time and flush 100 bucks in the toilet before spending it on ripe fruit writing.

It is truly the greenhouse of the imagination. I took the first Ripe Fruit workshop in 1991, and it was a spiritual awakening for me. I met my best friend there, and it jump started my writing. I never felt comfortable free-​writing, but in Ripe Fruit I was able to free write and share my writing in class.
I found I was finally able to write more deeply and use my subconscious.
Back then, I was a new technical writer and found that I could no longer write poetry. Every time I tried writing poetry, it came out like anal retentive technical writing. I had a hard time with trying to mine my work writing and my creative writing from the same place.
Leslie gave me the nurturing I needed. It was a rebirth for me, and she nurtured me when I needed it most. I became less afraid to be my goofy self.