Writing Berlin: 6-Week Creative Writing Course

Demi Anter expands her Writing Berlin workshop into six weekly sessions spanning the different lenses with which writers have depicted Berlin: History, Holiday, Fiction, Body and Home. This spring, for the first time, the course takes place in person at Shakespeare & Sons Bookstore.

Berlin has captured the imagination of writers and artists throughout history. In this creative writing course led by writer and facilitator Demi Anter, we will explore poetry, prose and visual art inspired by the city and explore ways of telling our own Berlin stories.

With Berlin as the starting point, writers are welcome to branch out into other locations of interest. We will discuss what strategies help writers to communicate a sense of place and how to access all of the senses, not only the visual sense, in depicting our surroundings on the page.

What to expect:

Each weekly session will focus on a particular theme. Participants will have a chance to read examples of work from a wide range of authors, historical and contemporary, on the subject of Berlin.

We will analyze these texts session by session and hear each other's work, offering constructive feedback. Demi will share manageable weekly writing assignments to get each writer's creative muscles working, and our brains approaching the city of Berlin in new ways.

This course will be conducted in English. Demi can also give some feedback in German. Attendees are welcome to write in any language. The workshop is suitable for writers of all experience levels, and is not constrained to any one genre.

Please note that unlike Demi's other classes at Shakespeare & Sons, this workshop will be strictly limited to eight participants. Two spaces are available for low-income persons. Early booking is encouraged.

Payment installations are available, as are invoices. Write to Demi directly for these options, and for invoice payment to avoid the booking fee.

Sessions:

Tuesday, April 21 — Berlin as History (Historical documents, research; the past as a setting; the dead and their ghosts.)

Tuesday, April 28 — Berlin as Holiday (Approaching "place" as a traveler, with new senses; creative foraging; travel writing.)

Tuesday, May 5 — Berlin as Fiction (Real places as settings for fictional characters and stories; future; fantasy; imagining what will come.)

Tuesday, May 12 — Berlin as Body (New ways of experiencing the worlds we live in.)

Tuesday, May 19 — Berlin as Home (Memoir; photographs; present life and its lovers.)

Tuesday, May 26 — Final sharing and next steps (Publishing routes; establishing long-term writing habits.)

About the Instructor

is an award-winning writer and performer, with work spanning poetry, creative nonfiction, script- and playwriting. She has been published in the US, Europe and the UK by Magma, Banshee and The Times, and has performed at Glastonbury Festival, Bristol Old Vic, Poetry Ireland and more. Her teaching focuses on the power of writing from personal experience, and she has conducted workshops at various institutions throughout the world, including the National Theatre and London's Irish Cultural Centre.

In 2023, she and Rory MacLean (author, Berlin: Imagine a City) co-presented "Bowie in Berlin" at the inaugural Sherborne Travel Writing Festival, alongside the UK's most prominent travel writers. Her poetry collection Small Machine, which documents her early years in Berlin, was published by Write Bloody UK in 2022. Chanel Miller called it, "Strikingly luminous and soothing." Musa Okwonga called it, "Tender, visceral, beautifully vulnerable."

What others have said about the Writing Berlin online course:

“This online writing workshop was a blessing! Having a common theme, besides writing, was a great way to bond better with the gang of amazing writers who were attending. Demi offered great reading and writing prompts that made me reflect and deepen my relationship with my own writing. Thank you!”

“Throughout the workshop, Demi provided us with great lenses through which to gaze at the city—it transformed how I walk around Berlin streets and take notice. I imagine that these lenses can really be applied anywhere you go or live—it isn't Berlin-restricted. I really recommend this for anyone who needs to see their world through fresher eyes, feed their imaginations, and meet great people to have great conversations about literature, narrative, and life.”

“The workshop with Demi was really inspiring and motivating for me. The exercises were well prepared and thought out and I not only had fun doing them, but I was also able to feel freer about the way I write and therefore more motivated. The feedback given during the workshop was also very insightful and constructive and motivated me to want to write more. The literature chosen was also important and accurate. I've already bought almost all the books on the list. I plan to do more workshops with Demi in the near future.”

“Demi created a welcoming space where history and poetry combined beautifully. She facilitated the workshop in a way that allowed us to have free reign with our ideas, while always feeling supported and encouraged. She also offered valuable feedback, as well as comprehensive notes and reading material. I genuinely feel very lucky to have been part of such a brilliant group. I would recommend any of Demi's workshops in a heartbeat.”

“Demi is a skilled and warm instructor. She is generous with her time and knowledge, always willing to go the extra mile for her students. I really enjoyed her workshops and am looking forward to attending more.”

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