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- Novel Writing workshop (online) with Celina BasraLink visible for attendees€230.00
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up.***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/novel-writing-workshop/
Course tutor: Celina Basra
When: Monday 18:00-20:00
Starting date: July 7, 2025
Where: online
Number of sessions: 6
Maximum participants: 12
Cost: €230A six week, two-hour virtual generative writing workshop to propel your novel along. Each week we will cover a different aspect of how to build a novel. Students will discuss different forms and techniques, and will be given writing prompts. We will workshop weekly submissions, work on the anatomy of your novel and write together. Open to any writer working on a novel, whichever stage. Non-native English speakers are very welcome.
Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up.
We will read Zadie Smith, Olga Ravn, Carmen Maria Machado, Italo Calvino, Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, George Perec, Ibtisam Azem, and others, and look beyond literature for inspiration too, with excursions into film, art, architecture, music and nature. Bring your draft and let it soar.
Celina Baljeet Basra is a writer, curator, and art historian, based in Berlin. She published her debut novel HAPPY with Astra House, New York, in 2023 (New York Times Editor’s Pick). Celina has graduated in Art History in a Global Context, and has since worked as the curator of the art space Galerie im Turm, at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, and with Berlin Biennale. She is a founder of the curatorial collective The Department of Love, who recently commissioned the text-based Love Letter series inviting Sheena Patel, Priya Jay and Quinn Latimer, amongst others. Celina has been awarded residencies with the Shanghai Biennale and Kochi Biennale, and she has received both curatorial and literary research stipends of the Berlin senate. She is part of several juries for public art funding, and appointed member of the Berlin Atelierbeirat. She is currently working with Talking Objects Lab and Spore Initiative, amongst others, and is working on her second novel.
TESTIMONIALS:
Celina has an uncanny ability to create a welcoming space for each of us to feel heard. Her insightful feedback, and the warm community she creates, moved my work forward in important ways.
— Ruth Sergel - Flash Fiction Factory (online) with Michael Jeffrey LeeLink visible for attendees€240.00
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up.***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/the-flash-fiction-factory/
Course tutor: Michael Jeffrey Lee
When: Sundays 19:00-21:30
Starting date: July 20, 2025
Where: online
Number of sessions: 7
Maximum participants: 10
Cost: €240A workshop dedicated to short-short prose of any kind: flash fiction, lyric essay, parable, fairy tale, dialogue, mini-play, whatever. The pace is brisk and the energy frenetic: you’ll be workshopped 3 times over the course of the 7-week class. No written feedback on the manuscripts themselves but expect generous, in-depth discussions of your work. Perfect for those looking to experiment with style, form, and voice—pure beginners, old hands, and the semi-seasoned all welcome. Limited to 10 participants.
Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up.
MICHAEL JEFFREY LEE’s first collection, Something in My Eye, received the Mary McCarthy Prize and was published by Sarabande. His second collection, My Worst Ideas, is forthcoming in 2023 from Spurl Editions. His stories have appeared in N+1, BOMB, The Rupture, and The Southern Review, among others. He has taught fiction at Tulane University, the University of Louisiana, and New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). He was the recipient of the Yale Educator Award for his work at NOCCA, and a research fellowship from the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin. He is also the vocalist for Budokan Boys.
TESTIMONIALS:
Michael’s workshop was a shot in the arm! Inspiring, wide-ranging, serious fun. Highly Recommended!
—Christopher Chambers, author of Kind of Blue. - The Fiction Workshop with Olivia ParkesAnother Country English Language Bookshop, Berlin€275.00
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot!
*** Email hello@thereaderberlin.com to sign up.***https://www.thereaderberlin.com/the-fiction-workshop-6/
Course tutor: Olivia Parkes
When: Wednesdays, 19:00-21:00
Starting date: September 3, 2025
Where: Another Country Bookshop
Number of sessions: 7
Maximum participants: 12
Cost: €275## What 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 olivia@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.TESTIMONIALS:
I love Olivia’s workshops! She brings such a joyous atmosphere to the group discussion, such a collegiate feel, and yet her observations, and questions to the group are always so deft and incisive. She has a way of drawing out the best in a group, ensuring that we’re reading and thinking, as writers. Everything seems worthy of attention during workshop weeks: writing feels fun, easy and possible. Group feedback on a work in progress is gently shepherded in a particularly useful way by Olivia: the result has been totally invaluable for my writing (and re-drafting). If you’re feeling stuck or lonely in your writing practice, Olivia’s workshops are a great way to open a few doors and let the light in.
– Louise East
