Writing Berlin - 6 Week Creative Writing Course Online

Demi Anter expands her Writing Berlin workshop into six weekly sessions spanning the different lenses with which writers have depicted Berlin: History, Holiday, Fiction and Home.

You are crazy, my child. You must go to Berlin.

—Franz von Suppé, Austrian Composer, 1800

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 deep dive into 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.

Sessions:

Tuesday, May 6 — Berlin as — Berlin as History (Historical documents, research; the past as a setting; the dead and their ghosts.)

Tuesday, May 13 — — Berlin as Holiday (Approaching "place" as a traveler, with new senses; creative foraging; travel writing.)

Tuesday, May 20 — — Berlin as Fiction (Real places as settings for fictional characters and stories; future; fantasy; imagining what will come.)

Tuesday, May 27 — Berlin as Home (Memoir; photographs; present life and its lovers.)

Tuesday, June 3 — Embodied Berlin (New ways of experiencing the worlds we live in.)

Tuesday, June 10 — Final sharing and next steps (Publishing routes; establishing long-term writing habits.)

Evenings: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm UK/Ireland, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm Central European Time

This course will be conducted online over Zoom in English (Demi can also give some feedback in German). Attendees are welcome to write in any language, though they are encouraged to bring English texts to feedback sessions. The workshop is suitable for writers of all experience levels, and is not constrained to any one genre.

In this city my own actions became memories, and a part of Berlin's history too, not so much because I did anything of importance here, but because others did, and their deeds became enmeshed in my life.

—Rory MacLean, Berlin: Imagine a City

About the Instructor

Demi Anter 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.

In 2023, she and Rory MacLean 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 five and a half 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.”