Sunday autumn masterclasses in the virtual Writing Room
APRIL YEE: DOCUMENTARY POETRY
2 October, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
What is the poetry of history, the poetry of change? In this workshop, participants will search the past for traces of what is left out of the archive. We will also survey documentary poetry’s nearly century-long drive to chronicle injustice and close read award-winning work by Don Mee Choi, Nicole Sealey, and Anthony Cody. Participants will leave with drafts to serve as starting points for historically rooted and personally relevant projects.
NAZRENE HANIF: WRITING AT THE INTERSECTION
16 October, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
We're often taught we need to claim a single identity – to classify what we do, where we are from, who we love and support, even build our own personal brand – when really we are many things, we're always changing. How do we capture this range of experience with meaning and clarity?
In this class, we'll explore the complexities of writing about the self and learn how to articulate our stories more authentically. Students will be encouraged to embrace their unique, evolving and sometimes opposing characteristics, drawing on the framework of ‘intersectionality’, a term first coined by writer and civil-rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw.
J.T. WILLIAMS: HIDDEN HISTORIES, WRITING FOR CHILDREN
6 November, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
Whose stories do we get to hear in historical fiction? How do we flip the narrative to open up space to hear a more diverse range of voices? Using a rich range of archival material to inspire, this workshop explores techniques to develop unique character perspectives and voices for compelling historical fiction for children.
TRAVIS ELBOROUGH: A SENSE OF PLACE
20 November, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
An interactive non-fiction workshop that will help you to get creative when writing about place, whether you have a novel, memoir, biography, travel or nature writing project in mind. More details coming soon!
JEHANE MARKHAM: POEMS OF THE CITY
4 December, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
This masterclass will take us on a tour of poems written in and about cities. Jehane will share some of her own city poetry and we'll discuss how best to capture and characterise the city. From prompts we'll write and share city poems of our own.
GWEN MACKEITH: WAYS INTO DIALOGUE - GETTING OUR CHARACTERS TALKING
18 December, 11am-1pm; Zoom delivery, cost £25
Do you sometimes struggle with getting your characters to speak? Do they sometimes dry up when you most need them to take the story forwards?
In this first workshop we will use writing prompts designed to attune to our characters’ voices and to know better what they might say, and how. We will also respond to prompts which explore the ways in which dramatic tension is built as characters move through their verbal exchange.
