What we're about
The Reader Berlin (http://thereaderberlin.com/) 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. (http://thereaderberlin.com/testimonials/)
Upcoming events (4)
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot, to sign up please email [masked]*** Course Tutor: Clare Wigfall When: Wednesdays, 19:30-21:30 (CET) Start Date: 28 October 2020 Where: ONLINE Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 11 Cost: 190 euros One silver lining of the pandemic that we can celebrate is the fact that Covid-19 has opened this much-loved and very unique writing course to students wherever they might be located; recent rounds have seen writers logging in from all over the world. With over fifteen years of teaching experience, Faber author, BBC National Short Story Award winner, and long- time Reader favourite Clare Wigfall has developed a method that guarantees to inspire your imagination and consistently brings extraordinary results. Whether you are an experienced writer or a total beginner, her intention is to break down the barriers that inhibit, so that the creative process can come naturally. Under her gentle guidance, this perfectly-structured course will allow you to develop a body of new work and experiment with different techniques. It’s guaranteed that you’ll finish with a notebook full of thoughts and ideas. By design, Part One of this course does not include a formal workshopping element, but does allow for opportunities to share your work. You’ll also be introduced to inspirational and thought-provoking fiction by established authors and will have a chance to hone your critical skills through group discussion of these texts. Clare’s workshops have a proven track record of inspiring her students to produce award-winning, publishable writing, and the final workshop will discuss practical tips for taking your writing further. This course will work you hard and provide challenges and surprises, but it also promises lots of fun and laughter, as well as much stimulation and encouragement from the others in the group. As experience has shown, even online, Clare is able to make her students feel part of a warm writing community, and to create connections that can last even beyond the close of the course. Clare’s Part One course usually fills up fast, so please apply early to avoid disappointment. Waiting list students will have early access to further courses that Clare offers. This course will be run fully online to enable writers from any location to attend. Due to the current emergency situation, Clare has taught all her Reader courses online in recent months and has been pleasantly surprised by how close the online experience comes to a real-life workshop. Classes will be taught via Zoom, so an electronic device (PC/tablet/smart phone) with a good internet connection and audio/video capability will be required. A graduate of the prestigious UEA Creative Writing Masters Programme, Clare has taught writing workshops all over Europe, including for the Arvon Foundation, the BBC, CIEE, and is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bard College Berlin; she is approachable, generous with her experience, and her teaching has an inventiveness and energy that never fails to inspire her students. Suitable for advanced writers to total beginners, this special workshop series guarantees to inspire. It also offers an unbeatable opportunity to work with an author described as “so good she gives you chills” (The Guardian) and the author of tales “sorrowful, disturbing and darkly beautiful” (London Review of Books). Her debut story collection The Loudest Sound and Nothing was published by Faber and Faber to critical acclaim in 2007 and the following year its opening story was given the BBC National Short Award. https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/clare-wigfall You can use this Time Zone Converter to work out the time where you are: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
- Salwa
- Victoria G.
- Jan-Christoph H.
- 8 attendees
Online event
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot, to sign up please email [masked]*** Course Tutor: Jessica Miller When: Wednesday evenings, 19:00–21:00 Start date: 4 Nov 2020 Where: Online - owing to Coronavirus Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 10 Cost: €150 Is there a story inside you that’s waiting to be told? Jessica Miller will be running a seven-week course for writers who would like to explore their ideas in fiction. The primary purpose of this workshop is sharing and critiquing original work in a supportive group setting. Each participant will have two opportunities to submit and receive feedback on a piece of fiction. We’ll also be doing creative exercises designed to deepen your writing practice and looking at work from exciting contemporary fiction writers. To sign up, send an email to [masked] Jessica Miller holds a doctorate in Creative Writing and is the author of two books: Elizabeth and Zenobia was named one of 2017’s best middle grade novels by Kirkus Reviews; The Republic of Birds will be published in March 2020.
- Salwa
- Victoria G.
- Grazia P.
- 3 attendees
Online event
***RSVP-ing to this event does not secure your spot, to sign up please email [masked]***Course will take place online until government guidance changes*** Course Tutor: CJ Hopkins When: Thursday evenings 18:30 - 20:30 Start date: 5 Nov 2020 Where: ONLINE - owing to Coronavirus Number of Sessions: 7 Maximum Participants: 10 Cost: €150 (€140 for returning scriptwriters) *Courses will take place online until government guidance changes* But be not afraid—Zoom workshops at The Reader have been going down a storm* Multi-award winning, internationally produced playwright CJ Hopkins (cjhopkins.com) will once again be offering a 7-week scriptwriting workshop for screenwriters and playwrights. Participants meet weekly, submit excerpts of their stage- or screenplays on a rotating schedule and receive constructive feedback and personalized mentoring in a supportive and professional setting. Although the workshops are “hands on” workshops (i.e., not lectures), the fundamentals of 3 act structure are covered, along with other aspects of the craft, including: dialogue, characterization, plotting, scene structure, genres, loglines, etc. All forms and styles of scripts are welcome, from traditional “Hollywood” screenplays to experimental, non-narrative forms. The focus is on developing and strengthening each individual writer’s voice and craft, and thus the workshops are appropriate for scriptwriters at every level of experience, from absolute beginners to professionals. If you wish to reserve a spot please email [masked] as soon as possible as places are limited. C.J. Hopkins is an award-winning playwright, political satirist, and script consultant. His early plays and experimental stage-texts were produced during the 1990s in New York, where he was awarded a 1994 Drama League of New York Developing Artist fellowship and a 1995 Mabou Mines Resident Artist/Jerome Foundation fellowship. Since 2001, his plays have been produced and have toured internationally, playing theatres and festivals including Riverside Studios (London), 59E59 Theaters (New York), Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), the Du Maurier World Stage Festival (Toronto), Needtheater (Los Angeles), 7 Stages (Atlanta), English Theater Berlin, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Brighton Festival, and the Noorderzon Festival (the Netherlands), among many others. His playwriting awards include the 2002 First of the Scotsman Fringe Firsts (Horse Country), the 2004 Best of the Adelaide Fringe award (Horse Country), and a 2005 Scotsman Fringe First (screwmachine/eyecandy). His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing/Methuen (UK) and Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. (US). His political satire and commentary has appeared on NPR Berlin, in CounterPunch, ColdType, ZeroHedge, The Unz Review, and other publications, and has been translated into Italian, French, Portuguese and German. Further information is available at his website: cjhopkins.com. “CJ’s screenwriting workshop has provided me with the motivation and structure I need to write. The feedback from CJ and the group is invaluable and helps bring an incomplete or unformed idea into focus and give it grounding. It is inspiring and fun to read other writer’s work in progress: It seems we are in an array of colorful boats launching from a dock in multiple directions.” – Heather Sinclair, playwright “CJ’s workshops exceeded my expectations and gave me the motivation to continue writing. It’s very inspiring to work with someone with so much passion for the art of play and screenwriting who treats the work handed in by the participants as seriously as his own. HIs feedback both motivated me and gave me the confidence to explore my ideas further.” – Sharon Mertins, screenwriter
- LJ K.
- Victoria G.
- 2 attendees
***RSVP-ing to an event doesn't secure you a spot, to sign up please contact [masked]*** Course Tutor: Susanna Forrest When: TBA Start date: Ongoing 2020 Where: Online - owing to Coronavirus Number of Sessions: 3 Maximum Participants: 10 Cost: €139.20 (inc 16% MWST) This autumn Reader tutor Susanna Forrest will be offering an online coaching package of three one-hour feedback/editing sessions at your convenience by December 23rd 2020. If you have a substantial creative nonfiction project that you’d like to polish, complete, or boost Susanna will give you detailed feedback at each one-to-one meeting. Together, you’ll develop the structure, play with voice, and dive deeper into the underlying themes. The goal is to build your skills so you feel confident about working independently, while making progress in the meetings on writing that might currently feel blocked or stale. Email [masked] with details of your project and your goals (word count, number of essays, publications to target, etc) The fee is €139.20 (inc 16% MWST). Deadline for Applying: December 23rd 2020 Sessions will be scheduled according to everyone’s convenience. *Please note: This is not a course, but a one-to-one coaching experience Please disregard the time set on MeetUp, times are to be arranged with Susanna.
- dayna
- Kyomi W.
- 2 attendees
Past events (352)
Online event
- LJ K.
- Beata
- Kyomi W.
- 5 attendees
