Creative non-fiction: intensive
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
Choose a start date
- Course Code: HW509
- Dates: 30/05/24 - 11/07/24
- Time: 18:00 - 20:00
- Taught: Thu, Evening
- Duration: 6 sessions (over 7 weeks)
- Location: Online
- Tutor: Yvonne Singh
Course Code: HW509
Choose a start date
Duration: 6 sessions (over 7 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This course covers core elements of the creative non-fiction genre. Students will be encouraged to think creatively and imaginatively about their approach to writing their own creative non-fiction.
Please note - there will be no class on Thursday 6 June..
This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone if you don't have a computer.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.
What will we cover?
What is creative non-fiction?
How do we constructively analyse a creative non-fiction text?
Which core language and structural techniques are used for effect?
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Develop your understanding of the creative non-fiction genre.
- Constructively analyse creative non-fiction texts.
- Write your own creative non-fiction pieces.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
No formal requirements except a good standard of literacy and a love of reading.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
- Analysis of short pieces in class through group discussion.
- Pair work and group work.
- Regular individual short writing exercises.
- Formal instruction from the teacher combined with group discussion.
All writing courses at City Lit will involve an element of workshop. This means that students will produce work which will be discussed in an open and constructive environment with the tutor and other students. The college operates a policy of constructive criticism, and all feedback on another student’s work by the tutor and other students should be delivered in that spirit.
City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe and welcoming space for all and we strongly support the use of content notes in our classes. This means that learners are encouraged to make their tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing they wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. If you are unsure about what might constitute sensitive content, please ask your tutor for further clarification and read our expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Writing materials.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The Writing department offers a range of creative writing courses, including Autobiographical writing, Biography writing, Writing a memoir and The art of the personal essay.
All students are invited to join us at Late Lines, our regular performance night for City Lit writers. Students are also encouraged to submit their work to Between the Lines, our annual anthology of creative writing. For the latest news, courses and events, stay in touch with the Department on Facebook and Twitter.
Yvonne Singh was a staff journalist at The Guardian for over a decade, and her work has been published in that paper as well as The Observer, The Mirror, The London Evening Standard, the BBC World website, Marie Claire, Middle East Eye, Commonwealth Writers and The Big Issue among others. She contributed to the Know Your Place anthology that was featured in Guardian Weekend and in the Seaside Photographed exhibition that toured British art galleries in 2021. Her long read essay for The Guardian on her Caribbean origins was one of the paper’s most read in 2019 and her piece on a Trinidadian Hummingbird Sanctuary in November 2020 was praised in a Virago OurShelves podcast. Yvonne has also worked as an editor in a voluntary capacity for the Caribbean literary magazine Pree. Yvonne holds an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University – her debut manuscript received a distinction and was awarded second prize in the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018. She was a judge for the SI Leeds 2020 prize. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Seán Ó Faoláin prize, longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop Prize and Black Spring Press, and have appeared in the acclaimed journal Southword.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
