Walrus Courses

🔥🔥🔥NEW ONLINE COURSE!!! 🔥🔥🔥

***Jane Austen's Juvenilia***
Jane Austen’s juvenilia comprises her works written between the ages of eleven and eighteen. Teeming with her trademark wit and irony, these early writings turn the expectations placed on young women in the late eighteenth century upside down, creating a world where excess, absurdity, and rebellion take center stage.

In this six-week course, we will explore Austen’s juvenilia and early works as the foundation of her literary world and discover how these playful, exaggerated texts already contain the themes that will define her later novels. Whether you are new to Austen or revisiting her with fresh eyes, join us for thoughtful, lively discussions of her earliest—and most uninhibited—creations.

Thursdays 7-8:30pm, June 4-July 16 (no class July 9)
72,000 pesos for the 6-week course
Online via Zoom

Paloma Apesteguía holds a B.A. in English from Universidad del Salvador. Born in Argentina and briefly raised in the United States, she’s always lived between languages—and loves the spaces where they meet. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Oxford in 2025 and has recently returned from a year-long exchange program as a Language Assistant at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, USA. An aspiring author at work on her first novel, she is passionate about fiction that brings us closer to understanding ourselves and each other.

To sign up: [email protected]

A World Unraveling: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

This six-week course explores Things Fall Apart, a groundbreaking novel by renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe that transformed how African literature was read and understood around the world. First published in 1958, it offers a powerful, clear-eyed portrayal of Igbo life before and during the arrival of British colonial rule.

At its center is Okonkwo, one of modern literature’s most compelling tragic figures, whose rise and fall unfolds against a society undergoing irreversible change. Week by week, we will discuss the novel's portrayal of life under colonial rule and explore Achebe's boundary-pushing prose. Join us to discuss one of the greatest works of literature ever produced.

Wednesdays 7:15-8:45pm, May 13-June 17
72,000 pesos for the 6-week course
In-person at Walrus Books (Estados Unidos 617)

Originally from Bristol, UK, Joe Santamaria is a literature tutor, journalist, and podcaster based in Buenos Aires. He holds a BA in English and Related Literature from the University of York and an MPhil in Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. For the past eight years, he has taught literature and critical reading, specialising in poetry and prose analysis. He is the senior poetry analyst at PoemAnalysis.com, the world’s largest poetry analysis website, where he writes critical essays and develops educational resources. He is also the co-host of the poetry podcast Beyond the Verse, which was named one of the world’s best poetry podcasts by Podcast Review.

To sign up: [email protected]

🔥 🔥 🔥 ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT 🔥 🔥 🔥

A Century in Flux: Six Poems That Define the 20th Century

What can a single poem reveal about its time? How do poets respond to crisis, upheaval and transformation, and how do their voices shape the way we understand history?

This six-week course explores the twentieth century through six influential poems, each offering a distinct perspective on a period marked by war, cultural rupture, political struggle, and shifting ideas of identity. Moving from the aftermath of the First World War through mid-century poetic experiments and into late-century reflection, the course traces how poets have grappled with a world in flux.

Each week, we will focus on one poem, reading it closely and discussing both its historical context and its formal choices. Along the way, we will encounter a wide range of styles, from the prophetic intensity of W. B. Yeats to the modernist fragmentation of T. S. Eliot and the powerful lyric voice of Maya Angelou, to consider how different poetic approaches respond to shared pressures in radically different ways.

Classes are discussion-led and designed for curious readers who want to deepen their engagement with poetry. No prior experience is required—just a willingness to read attentively, share ideas, and explore how a handful of poems can illuminate an entire century.

Tuesdays 7:15-8:45pm, May 12-June 16
72,000 pesos for the 6-week course
In-person at Walrus Books (Estados Unidos 617)

Originally from Bristol, UK, Joe Santamaria is a literature tutor, journalist, and podcaster based in Buenos Aires. He holds a BA in English and Related Literature from the University of York and an MPhil in Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. For the past eight years, he has taught literature and critical reading, specialising in poetry and prose analysis. He is the senior poetry analyst at PoemAnalysis.com, the world’s largest poetry analysis website, where he writes critical essays and develops educational resources. He is also the co-host of the poetry podcast Beyond the Verse, which was named one of the world’s best poetry podcasts by Podcast Review.

To sign up: [email protected]

COMING UP IN NOVEMBER…

Crafting the Voice: A Creative Writing and Reading Workshop

The voice is the heart of literature. It picks us up and carries us along the journey as it unfolds on the page before us. At times, this voice is off-putting, or requires patience for us to find our way into the unique cadence and tone we are met with. Often, though, for those of us who have writers we return to time and again, the voice is precisely the lure that keeps us coming back for more. We can recall the voice of the beloved writer–albeit conveyed through the narrator or speaker–with vividness and proximity.

In this 6-week course, we will explore, through various forms and genres, the construction of voice. Reading will encourage us to understand how writers capture a voice in order to shape meaning, as seen through poetry by Carol Ann Duffy and Marie Howe, short stories by Jamaica Kincaid and George Saunders, and creative nonfiction by Jo Ann Beard and Allie Middleton.

Accompanying the reading will be our own dive into the construction of voice through short in-class exercises and the workshopping of longer pieces written at home. By the end of the course, participants will have at least one polished piece, in addition to, hopefully, a more solidified sense of their voice, answering questions like: Who are we as writers? What do we have to say? How does it come out of us? And how can the natural personalities of our voice be expressed on the page thoughtfully and with intention?

Wednesdays 7-8:30pm, Nov. 5-Dec. 10
59,000 pesos for the 6 week course
Taught online via Zoom

Mackenzie Levitan was born in the United States but moved to Buenos Aires in 2013 after finishing her undergraduate degree in Written Arts and Latin American Studies at Bard College. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from UNTREF in 2019 as a poet and essayist. She teaches literature at a local high school, tutors students who are preparing for international exams and is currently editing a translation of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.

Reserve your spot today: [email protected]

🔥🔥🔥ONLY 3 SPOTS LEFT🔥🔥🔥

The Short Stories of Raymond Carver and John Cheever

While from opposite sides of the USA and completely different social backgrounds, what unites these two former drinking buddies is their mastery of the short story form to express — though in very different ways — their character’s individual struggles and corresponding societal constraints in the context of a non-existent, or at best elusive, American Dream.

Usually set in the Pacific Northwest and peopled with down and out characters that can’t seem to get a break, Raymond Carver’s stories are written in a spare prose style that serves to highlight working-class realities in a genre that has become known as ‘dirty realism’.

John Cheever, on the other hand, often uses a more elaborate and figurative language to depict the miseries of commuter boredom and infinite lawn maintenance in the affluent East Coast suburbs of the 1950s and 1960s.

This six-week course will devote three classes to each author while we read and discuss classics such as Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” and Cheever’s “The Swimmer”.

Thursdays 7:15-8:45pm, October 30-December 4
Taught at Walrus Books (Estados Unidos 617)
59,000 pesos for the 6 week course

Cayley Taylor lives in Buenos Aires but is originally from Canada. She holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature and Philosophy and an MA in Social and Political Thought. In addition to working as an editor and translator, she has taught literature courses in Canada, Mexico, and Argentina.

To sign up, please write to us at: [email protected]

Poetry: An Odyssey Into a Misunderstood Genre

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Poetry! Pretty much all of us have read it at some point in our lives, and willingly or unwillingly, we’ve also probably tried to write it. But what, exactly, is a poem? And perhaps more importantly — what makes a good one? During this six-week course, we will read a wide range of contemporary poems in search of answers to these questions. As we learn from the likes of Jenni Fagan, James Merrill, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ada Limón, Ocean Vuong, and Anne Carson, students will be invited to write, read, and workshop their own poems. No previous experience reading or writing poetry is needed — just a willingness to show up, bare your heart, and have fun!

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Mondays 7:15-8:45pm, October 20-December 1 (no class Nov. 24)
Taught at Walrus Books (Estados Unidos 617)
59,000 pesos for the 6 week course

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Born in the Rust Belt city of Buffalo, New York, Alex Mogavero has lived in Buenos Aires for close to a decade. He studied Spanish Language and Literature at Buffalo State University, as well as English and Creative Writing. Since finishing his BA, he’s racked up a number of certificates in education and counselling, and is currently studying psychology at the University of Buenos Aires. When he’s not teaching languages or literature, you might find him reading Tarot, baking bread, or playing Brahms on the viola.

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To sign up, please write to us at: [email protected]

*THE WALRUS SCHOOL ONLINE*
🔥🔥 ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT!!! 🔥🔥

The Ties That Bind: Stories of Parents and Children

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree—and yet, sometimes it rolls. Whether we feel love, longing, loss, or something more complicated, our relationship with our parents shapes us in ways we’re often still discovering. As a new mother myself, I’ve been reflecting on the power and complexity of that bond: what it means to be a parent, a child, or both at once.

Join me for a six-week journey through powerful short stories by Alice Walker, Tillie Olsen, Ray Bradbury, and others as we explore the many faces of parenthood—across cultures, generations, and emotional landscapes. We’ll ask: What makes a “good” parent? What happens when parents and children see the world differently? Can we ever really know the people who raised us? What is the new role that technology plays as we raise our kids?

Whether your experience of family is joyful, painful, or something in between, these stories will open up space for meaningful discussion, insight, and connection.

TUESDAYS 7-8:30PM
SEPTEMBER 9-OCTOBER 14
TAUGHT BY ASRIEL MEDINA
**ONLINE VIA ZOOM**
59,000 PESOS FOR THE 6 WEEK COURSE

Sign up today: [email protected]

💥💥💥 ONLY THREE SPOTS LEFT!!! 💥💥💥
Reserve yours before this course sells out: [email protected]

The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf

When Katherine Mansfield died at just 34 years old in 1923, Virginia Woolf famously confessed that the New Zealander’s writing was the only writing she had ever been jealous of. The stylistic and formal innovations found in the short stories of both authors have come to characterize literary modernism, a movement that encapsulated the sweeping scientific, political, cultural and social changes that were taking place at the beginning of the 20th century. From Woolf’s epistemological critique in “The Mark on the Wall” to Mansfield’s exploration of epiphany in “The Garden Party”, this six-week course will compare the groundbreaking short stories of these two modernist megastars.

THURSDAYS 7:15-8:45 PM
SEPTEMBER 4-OCTOBER 9
TAUGHT BY CAYLEY TAYLOR
AT WALRUS BOOKS (ESTADOS UNIDOS 617)
59,000 PESOS FOR THE 6 WEEK COURSE

Stories of Motherhood

Writer Sarah Menkedick once wrote: “Patriarchal culture has reduced motherhood to an exercise no serious artist would tackle as a subject.” Fortunately, this belief is gradually being challenged. Present or absent, adored or despised, we all have mothers, although we don’t all understand them. While the topic of motherhood itself has long been overlooked, the figure of the mother is ubiquitous in literature. The experience of motherhood is complex and varied. In this course we will explore stories of biological mothers, stepmothers, mothers by choice and mothers by circumstance. Authors will include Chimamanda Adichie, Tessa Hadley, Colm Tóibín and more.

SATURDAYS 10-11:30 AM
AUGUST 30-OCTOBER 4
TAUGHT BY REBECCA WOLPIN
AT WALRUS BOOKS (ESTADOS UNIDOS 617)
59,000 PESOS FOR THE 6 WEEK COURSE
Sign up today: [email protected]

🔥🔥🔥🔥ONLY FOUR SPOTS LEFT!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Passages: A Journey Through Travel Writing

Set out on a literary adventure that explores the craft of travel writing through short stories and essays. Each week, we’ll tour new places–real and imagined–through the eyes of celebrated writers. Our readings will include enthralling travel accounts from roaming authors like James Baldwin, Kate Chopin, and Martha Gellhorn. Experience the thrill of discovery, the complexities of crossing borders, and the personal transformations that travel inspires. We’ll also explore how authors capture place, culture, and the self in motion, all while considering our own experiences as observers on the move. These six weeks will be your passport to evocative journeys through places like France, East Africa, and Cuba. No bag packing required.

WEDNESDAYS 7:15-8:45 PM
AUGUST 20-SEPTEMBER 24
TAUGHT BY JUSTINE BROWNING
AT WALRUS BOOKS (ESTADOS UNIDOS 617)
59,000 PESOS FOR THE 6 WEEK COURSE
Sign up today: [email protected]

James Joyce’s Dubliners

A priest dies. A young boy goes to the market. A woman hesitates at a port. A man attends a Christmas party.

The stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners may seem simple on the surface, but in Joyce’s hands, the mundane becomes monumental. These are not heroic tales, but portraits of ordinary people navigating missed chances, quiet disappointments, and sudden epiphanies. With quiet brilliance, Joyce captures small moments that reveal the emotional and psychological undercurrents of daily life in early twentieth-century Dublin—a city shaped by religious tradition, colonial influence, and a culture of silence and restraint.

In this six-week course, we’ll explore selected stories from Dubliners, considering how Joyce’s precise style creates stories that still resonate today. Whether this is your first reading or a long-overdue return to a modernist classic, join us for thoughtful discussion on how a collection over a century old still feels startlingly relevant today.

Thursdays 7:15-8:45pm, May 22-June 26
49,000 pesos for the 6-week course
Walrus Books, San Telmo (Estados Unidos 617)
Taught by Paloma Apesteguía
To sign up: [email protected]