What we’re about
The Reader Berlin is a platform for writers of all nationalities, offering community, networking and author services.
Since 2011, we’ve been hosting creative writing workshops, seminars, literary events, and author get-togethers. Our tutors are award-winning authors and publishing professionals who offer expert insight, advice and encouragement to emerging writers. In the past few years, we’ve worked with hundreds of participants from all over the world, many of whom have gone on to publish work of their own. If you’ve never written a story before, come and have a go. If writing is everything to you, then we’d very much like to meet you too. We take it – but not ourselves – seriously.
Don't forget - to reserve a place on one of our workshops, you need to email hello@thereaderberlin.com, RSVPing on Meet Up is not enough!
Berlin is our home and we’re very much part of the international community of writers here. Writing can be joyous but it is solitary; we aim to bring writers together, to share contacts and build bridges to the publishing industry. Alongside readings and our programme of courses, we offer one-to-one mentoring, manuscript assessment, and editing services. Our tutors have taught in MFA programmes, publish books, write for international publications, and contribute to journals and magazines; their guidance and experience is invaluable.
We work with all kinds of writers – from those just starting out to published authors. Our alumni have won awards, started their own magazines, been published in print and online, gone on to undertake Creative Writing MAs and MFAs, and won publishing deals with major publishing houses.
What started life as a single workshop in the cellar of a Kreuzberg bookshop has evolved to encompass The Berlin Writing Prize, Writing Retreats on the Pelion peninsula in Greece, a series of print anthologies and a writers’ festival. At the heart of what we do is the belief that writers can and should help one another, and that with one another’s support we can become better writers.
Check out the testimonials from our participants here.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- The Craft of Fiction (morning edition)Link visible for attendees€200.00
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** To sign up please email jane@thereaderberlin.com ***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/the-craft-of-fiction-morning-edition-2/
Course tutor: Jane Flett
When: Wednesday 10:30-12:30
Date: May 1, 2024
Where: online
Number of sessions: 7
Maximum participants: 10
Cost: €200 (€190 for returning students)This is a generative 7-week class for writers whose imaginations need a kick in the ass – it does not include a workshopping element.
The Craft of Fiction will cover a mixture of creative exercises and explorations of elements of craft, with readings, assignments, games, and discussions designed to help you hone your process and improve your fiction. We’ll start out creating new story ideas before heading into deeper literary waters, so the course is suitable for everyone from total beginners to published novelists.
The readings in these sessions will focus on examining diverse contemporary literature beyond the white male literary canon, taking inspiration from the best queer/trans/BIPOC/female authors working today. Graduates from Jane’s class have gone on to attend funded MFAs at Iowa and Brown, publish in journals such as Electric Literature, Tin House and The New Yorker, sign with top-tier agents, and publish with major publishing houses—so if you want to figure out where to take your writing next, she can help you get there.To book your place email jane@thereaderberlin.com.
Jane Flett is a Scottish writer based in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and awarded the New Orleans Writing Residency. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry and received the Berlin Senate Award for non-German literature. She is represented by Marina de Pass of the Soho Agency and her debut novel Freakslaw is forthcoming from Doubleday (Penguin Random House) in June 2024.
- The Craft of Fiction - (evening edition)Link visible for attendees€200.00
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** To sign up please email jane@thereaderberlin.com ***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/the-craft-of-fiction-evening-edition-2/
Course tutor: Jane Flett
When: Thursday 19:00-21:00
Date: May 2, 2024
Where: online
Number of sessions: 7
Maximum participants: 10
Cost: €200 (for returning students €190)This is a generative 7-week class for writers whose imaginations need a kick in the ass – it does not include a workshopping element.
The Craft of Fiction will cover a mixture of creative exercises and explorations of elements of craft, with readings, assignments, games, and discussions designed to help you hone your process and improve your fiction. We’ll start out creating new story ideas before heading into deeper literary waters, so the course is suitable for everyone from total beginners to published novelists.
The readings in these sessions will focus on examining diverse contemporary literature beyond the white male literary canon, taking inspiration from the best queer/trans/BIPOC/female authors working today. Graduates from Jane’s class have gone on to attend funded MFAs at Iowa and Brown, publish in journals such as Electric Literature, Tin House and The New Yorker, sign with top-tier agents, and publish with major publishing houses—so if you want to figure out where to take your writing next, she can help you get there.To book your place email jane@thereaderberlin.com.
Jane Flett is a Scottish writer based in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and awarded the New Orleans Writing Residency. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry and received the Berlin Senate Award for non-German literature. She is represented by Marina de Pass of the Soho Agency and her debut novel Freakslaw is forthcoming from Doubleday (Penguin Random House) in June 2024.
- The Fiction Workshop *FULL*Another Country -Bookshop, Berlin, BE€265.00
THIS CLASS IS FULL. Olivia's next class will be in September.
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** To sign up please email hello@thereaderberlin.com ***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/the-fiction-workshop-2/
Course tutor: Olivia Parkes
When: Wednesdays 19:00 - 21:00
Date: May 8, 2023
Where: Another Country Bookstore
Number of sessions: 7
Maximum participants: 12
Cost: €265What kind of stories do you want to tell, and what is the best way of telling them? Open to writers of all levels, this seven-week workshop will allow you to experiment with and develop your own writing, with an eye to generating stories that are efficient, loaded, and urgent. In the first half of the course, we’ll read and discuss short fiction by authors like Joy Williams, Haruki Murakami, Donald Barthelme, and Lydia Davis, and apply what we learn in exercises aimed at generating new material and exploring different approaches to the craft of storytelling.
In the second half of the course, you’ll have the opportunity to workshop your own fiction, gaining invaluable feedback for revision as well as the opportunity to hone your editorial eye. Expect an open and supportive environment in which to explore your interests and obsessions, generate new work, and revise work in progress. Each student will have the opportunity to formally workshop their own writing once, though we will also informally share from the short, spontaneous work generated in the first half of the class. You’ll get detailed written feedback from Olivia on your submission after we discuss your work.
Email us at hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up!
Olivia Parkes is a British-American writer and artist based in Berlin. Her short stories have appeared in Tin House, Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, Zyzzyva, and The Masters Review, among other publications. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2021 and is the recipient of fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Dorothea Konwiarz Stiftung, and the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin.
