The Art of Writing for Modern Love
with Lavinia Spalding
MONDAY, MARCH 24TH, 2025
9:00 – 11:30AM PT
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your story in the New York Times’ Modern Love column?
For twenty years, these essays—raw, honest, and beautifully told—have captivated readers. And while the submission process is simple, getting published is another thing altogether. The editors receive upwards of 200 essays a week and can publish only one.
The good news?
You don’t have to be a seasoned writer to land a spot. You just have to know what the editors are looking for and how to shape your love story into something unforgettable. That’s why I’m thrilled to welcome two-time Modern Love contributor, Lavinia Spalding, to 27 Powers. She’s bringing everything she knows about writing for the column—the craft, the nuance, the way a personal story transforms into something universal. Because Modern Love isn’t just about romance—it’s about all the ways love is tested and revealed: in family, friendship, work, travel, identity, and the tender spaces in between.
In our time together, Lavinia will guide us through what makes a Modern Love essay sing. She’ll talk about voice, structure, and the ethics of writing about real people. She’ll also walk us through the nuts and bolts of submitting, including how to distill a story down to a Tiny Love Story if a full-length piece isn’t the right fit.
Even if the Modern Love column isn’t on your radar, you will leave with tips on what makes a personal love story most memorable.
Here’s what to expect:
✨Excavating Your Life Stories
Consider which of your stories is a fit for Modern Love, and learn to shape it into a clear, compelling narrative that’s both distinct and universal.
✨Cracking the Code
Learn how the Modern Love essay differs structurally and artistically from other kinds of personal writing; how it moves and flows on the page toward its surprising inevitability.
✨The Art of Writing Others
Explore the complicated ethics of writing about real people and relationships and learn how to do so with vulnerability, honesty, respect, courage, and intention.
✨Learn to Love the Questions
Investigate the core questions your essay asks and awaken your own curiosity as you dive into the inherent and central dilemma of the experience.
✨The Rules of Love
Grasp the ins and outs, nuts and bolts, tricks and tips – the submission guidelines and editorial preferences of a Modern Love essay.
✨Tap Into Love
Through in-class, prompt-based free writes and generative exercise, reconnect on a deeper level with the story you’ve been wanting to tell.
✨Lean In
Uncover the powerful and poignant lesson within your experience, and articulate it in a way that will resonate with millions of Modern Love readers.
Come with an idea for an essay if you have one. Or better yet, let’s unearth a Modern Love story together.
live online
WITH POET, LAVINIA SPALDING
MONDAY, MARCH 24TH, 2025
9:00 – 11:30AM PT
Can’t make it live? Replay Included.
You’ll get access to the entire session.
Art Writing Family members, enter your discount code to save $10!
Not sure what your code is? Check your email invitation or the member site.
about lavinia
Lavinia Spalding is an award-winning author and editor who has published eleven books. She’sthe author of Writing Away (named one of the best travel books of 2009 by the Los Angeles Times), six-time series editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and co-author of With a Measure of Grace, This Immeasurable Place (named one of the best books of 2017 on NPR’s “On Point”) and the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Frommer’s EasyGuide to New Orleans.
Lavinia has published two Modern Love essays in the New York Times and her writing has also appeared in AFAR, Tin House, Longreads, River Teeth, Post Road, Off Assignment, Yoga Journal, Sunset, AirBnB magazine, Ms., The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, and many more national and international publications.
Her work has been widely anthologized, has won gold SATW Lowell Thomas and gold SOLAS travel writing awards, and has been noted in The Best American Travel Writing.
She’s also the co-host and co-creator of the storytelling podcast There She Goes and a co-founder of Studio Unfurl. Lavinia wrote the introduction to the Restless Books’ e-book edition of Edith Wharton’s classic travelogue A Motor-Flight Through France. She leads writing workshops around the world and online and teaches storytelling classes to businesses, and she is available for speaking engagements. She lives with her family in New Orleans and on Cape Cod. Learn more an connect with Lavinia here: https://laviniaspalding.com/
Read her Modern Love pieces here!
live online
WITH POET, LAVINIA SPALDING
MONDAY, MARCH 24TH, 2025
9:00 – 11:30AM PT
Can’t make it live? Replay Included.
You’ll get access to the entire session.
Art Writing Family members, enter your discount code to save $10!
Not sure what your code is? Check your email invitation or the member site.
I’M EXCITED TO BE PARTNERING WITH CHAPTER 510, A NONPROFIT GROUP IN OAKLAND SERVING BLACK, BROWN, AND QUEER KIDS, AGES 7-18.
Chapter 510 is a writing, bookmaking & publishing center that wants every young person in Oakland to write with confidence and joy. Chapter 510 believes that writing is an act of liberation, and that young people transform themselves and their communities when they write and get published, succeeding in work, school, and life.
A portion of the proceeds from this event will go to supporting their free creative writing programs for black, brown, and queer youth.
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SIGN UP HERE FOR 5 DAYS OF WILD WRITING
