Writing Workshops - Fiction, Poetry, Scriptwriting & More

***RSVP-ing to this event doesn't guarantee you a spot. To sign up write to us at [masked]*** How do we write about the environment in a rapidly changing world? Drawing on nature writing, environmental journalism, fiction, and memoir, this course will generate the tools necessary for writing about place, setting, and nature in the context of shifting climates, borders, identities, and nations. Through a mixture of readings, discussion, a nature walk, and guided writing, this one-day course will help writers capture many facets of nature and setting. We’ll focus on three themes: - Environments: exploring edgelands, urban nature, and spaces that challenge our understandings of wilderness. - Voices: considering whose voices are heard and how communities are represented in nature and place writing. - Transformations: asking how we can capture climate change, biodiversity loss, and other shifts in our writing. We’ll tackle writing in a range of registers: from dark humour to elegiac prose to celebration. Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned pro, you will be encouraged to think critically about your portrayals of nature and the cultural lenses with which you approach it. Through a series of exercises, we’ll work together to begin prose works with a strong sense of place. This is an all-levels course, suited for non-fiction writers (including journalists and academics) and fiction writers hoping to hone their story’s setting. Beginning writers are more than welcome! To sign up write to use at [masked] For those of you coming in from out of town, stay at gorgeous The Circus Hotel and receive 10% off your booking! Ask for our discount code. About Jessica J. Lee: Jessica J. Lee is a Canadian-British-Taiwanese author, environmental historian, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author Award. Her first book, Turning, was named among the best books of 2017 by both The National Post and Die Zeit, named a Notable Book by the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Awards in the USA, and longlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors in Canada. She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics from York University and has written for BBC Radio 4’s Short Cuts and The TLS, among others. She is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review, a nature writing journal platforming writers of colour, and was Writer-in-Residence at the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology in Berlin from 2017–2018. Her second book, Two Trees Make a Forest: A story of memory, migration, and Taiwan will be published in November 2019. Tutor: Jessica Lee Start Date: 13 July 2019 End Date: 13 July 2019 Time: 10:30-16:30 (one-hour lunch break) Location: Tempelhofer Feld Maximum Participants: 14 Cost: 65€ (including MwSt) Note: The course will be held outdoors rain or shine; if there’s rain we’ll find a dry spot to write. So come prepared with weather-appropriate clothing, sunscreen, water, and a packed lunch. Participants should be prepared for a walk of up to 3 km.

*RSVP-ing to this event won't guarantee a spot, sign up by writing to [masked]* Course Tutor: Jane Flett When: Wednesday mornings, 10:30–12:30 Start date: 17 Jul 2019 Where: Selkestraße, Neükolln Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 10 Cost: €140 (€130 for returning students) Is there a story inside you that’s waiting to be told? Jane Flett, a BBC Radio short story author and one of Salt’s Best British poets, will be running a seven-week course for writers who would like to explore their ideas in fiction. Whether you’re writing prose for the first time or just need the motivation of a deadline to finish that story, the workshop will provide a supportive environment to share your writing and discover how to improve it. As well as receiving detailed feedback on your own work, you’ll also gain experience critiquing and editing your fellow writers. The course will include classes on narrative technique, characterisation, dialogue and voice, and writing exercises to get your inspiration flowing. To book your place email [masked]. Jane Flett’s writing has been published in over 70 literary journals and translated into Polish, Croatian and Japanese. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry anthology and her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4. Jane is a recipient of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award and was voted Berlin’s best English-language writer in 2015 by Indieberlin. Her website is: http://janeflett.com/ . “I highly recommend Jane Flett’s writing course. She creates a friendly, open, and engaging atmosphere that makes one feel safe, and even inspired, to take chances and be creative. That’s really the highest compliment I can give: before I took Jane’s class, I wanted to write. Now I am writing.” – Sam Loewenberg “Jane creates an open atmosphere in her courses that is at the same time very accessible to newcomers and very stimulating to experienced writers or returning students. There is a good balance between feedback sessions and exercise-based classes that have both made me a better and more aware writer. Most importantly, I always look forward to spending my Thursday nights writing and talking with Jane and the great group of people in her class.” – Sophie Buchel “Doing the course with Jane has really helped me with my story crafting. Her lessons are relaxed and enjoyable, where everyone is encouraged to give their opinion and really explore what makes a good piece of fiction. She sends out nuggets of gold in her worksheets between classes, and all of her exercises have been really useful. I just need to make sure I keep up my side of the bargain by doing the homework!” – Miranda Roszkowski

*RSVP-ing to this event won't secure your spot for the course, please sign up by writing to [masked]* Course Tutor: Jane Flett When: Wednesday evenings, 19:00–21:00 Start date: 17 Jul 2019 Where: Another Country, Riemann Staße, Kreuzberg Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 10 Cost: 140 euros (130 euros for returning students) Is there a story inside you that’s waiting to be told? Jane Flett, a BBC Radio short story author and one of Salt’s Best British poets, will be running a seven-week course for writers who would like to explore their ideas in fiction. Whether you’re writing prose for the first time or just need the motivation of a deadline to finish that story, the workshop will provide a supportive environment to share your writing and discover how to improve it. As well as receiving detailed feedback on your own work, you’ll also gain experience critiquing and editing your fellow writers. The course will include classes on narrative technique, characterisation, dialogue and voice, and writing exercises to get your inspiration flowing. To book your place email [masked]. Jane Flett’s writing has been published in over 70 literary journals and translated into Polish, Croatian and Japanese. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry anthology and her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4. Jane is a recipient of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award and was voted Berlin’s best English-language writer in 2015 by Indieberlin. Her website is: http://janeflett.com/ . “I highly recommend Jane Flett’s writing course. She creates a friendly, open, and engaging atmosphere that makes one feel safe, and even inspired, to take chances and be creative. That’s really the highest compliment I can give: before I took Jane’s class, I wanted to write. Now I am writing.” – Sam Loewenberg “Jane creates an open atmosphere in her courses that is at the same time very accessible to newcomers and very stimulating to experienced writers or returning students. There is a good balance between feedback sessions and exercise-based classes that have both made me a better and more aware writer. Most importantly, I always look forward to spending my Thursday nights writing and talking with Jane and the great group of people in her class.” – Sophie Buchel “Doing the course with Jane has really helped me with my story crafting. Her lessons are relaxed and enjoyable, where everyone is encouraged to give their opinion and really explore what makes a good piece of fiction. She sends out nuggets of gold in her worksheets between classes, and all of her exercises have been really useful. I just need to make sure I keep up my side of the bargain by doing the homework!” – Miranda Roszkowski

***RSVP-ing to this event doesn't secure you a spot, to sign up write to [masked]*** Course Tutor: Kate Brown When: Monday evenings, 19:00-21:00 Start date: 26 Aug 2019 Where: Wilmersdorf (Ring and U3) Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 12 Cost: 150 euros + 19% VAT (MwSt) Are you writing a novel and finding it’s turning into a lonely marathon? Do you have an idea, but don’t know where to start? If so, this workshop is just what you need. Using writing exercises and the discussion of short passages from favourite novels, we will look at voice and point of view, how to create believable, interesting characters, and story and plot. We will explore possibilities for creating a writing habit and finding our paths as writers on the long journey we take when writing a novel. With a focus on openings, the latter part of the course will be used to workshop short extracts from participants’ work in progress, sharing each other’s writing, and giving and receiving feedback in the sessions. Everyone gets a go and participants learn from reading each other’s work as well as from the feedback they get. The first four weeks are structured, with the last three reserved for the discussion of participants’ extracts. We will also look at what to do once you have a manuscript you want to send out into the world. How do you go about trying to find a publisher for your novel? And how do you decide whether your work is ready? Above all, the course provides guidance, food for thought and a supportive environment in which to meet other writers and share your fascination with storytelling. To sign up write to us at [masked] KATE BROWN is a writer and film-maker. Her first novel ‘The Women of Versailles’, set during the reign of Louis XV, was published by Seren Books in 2017. Her story ‘Making Fists’ won third prize in the Bristol Short Story Prize 2016. Other short fiction has been published widely and short-listed for the Fish Short Story Prize and the Asham Award among others. Kate has good eye for a story, she was fiction editor at UK literary magazine The View From Here. Stories she selected for publication there went on the be published in Salt’s 2013 and 2014 Best British Short Stories anthologies. She is also a mentor for the Womentoring Project https://womentoringproject.co.uk/. Kate is a graduate of the UK’s National Film and Television School, her films have been shown at festivals and on television worldwide.