Explore History, Culture & Writing
Explore our extraordinary range of History, Culture and Writing courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from ‘How to read a film’ and World literature, to Creative non-fiction writing courses and American history and Politics courses.
Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many have published, teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion through presentations, readings, interactive discussion and exercises, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit Learning community.
Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.
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- Ways into poetry
Course start date: Thu 12 Jan 2023 (and 5 other dates)Location on this date: Online (other locations are available)
Relatively new to writing poetry? This inspiring course offers an opportunity to experiment with language and a variety of poetic devices alongside fellow emerging poets. Discover the key elements of a poem in a friendly and interactive class.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £209.00 Concession £105.00 - Writing for magazinesCourse start date: Wed 18 Jan 2023 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Susan GrossmanGet inspired to write on this practical course for freelance journalists and bloggers. Learn to carry out research, interview people, pitch and publish stories, and build your presence on social media.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £65.00 - Writing a memoir: an introductionCourse start date: Fri 13 Jan 2023 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Online (other locations are available)
Tutors: Nick BarlaySome moments in our lives are so powerful they beg to be shared with the world. This course will help you plan and craft a memoir that will resonate and inspire.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £65.00 - Get together and readCourse start date: Thu 19 Jan 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Claire AllenEnjoy talking with other people about the things you have read? Want to share great stories, poems and drama? Come along and join the conversation. The group is led by a shared reading practitioner trained by The Reader Organisation.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £50.00 - Reading Images: Exploring Film studiesCourse start date: Wed 11 Jan 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis comprehensive introductory course provides an overview of the main historical, technical and theoretical aspects of filmmaking and film analysis.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - City Lit Evening Reading GroupCourse start date: Mon 26 Sep 2022
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Claire AllenShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary fiction in paperback) and having read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Monthly meetings on 26 Sept, 24 Oct, 28 Nov; 16 Jan, 20 Feb, 20 March, 08 May, 12 June, and 10 July.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - City Lit reading group 2Course start date: Fri 30 Sep 2022
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary fiction in paperback) and having read 'The Harlem Shuffle' by Colson Whitehead. Monthly meetings take place on 30 Sept, 4 Nov, 09 Dec; 27 Jan, 3 March, 31 March, 5 May, 2 June and 7 July.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Great American StoriesCourse start date: Mon 9 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian BirkettThe short story is America’s outstanding literary form. The explosion of magazines in the 19th century led to a huge market in stories “to be taken down with a gulp.” Many of its greatest writers specialised in the form – including Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, John Cheever, William Faulkner and Lorrie Moore – and made it a vivid barometer of American life.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Contemporary cinema: the best films of the yearCourse start date: Mon 9 Jan 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerA crucial course on contemporary/current cinema which coincides with the wide range of films released immediately before the Bafta/Oscar awards season. A weekly ‘what’s on’ previews these films and reviews films seen in the previous weeks. The first session is the drawing up of a definitive student list of the best films of the past year. This course is now more timely than ever as we continue return to cinemas and to the classroom at Keeley Street.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Manuscripts and illuminationCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard PlantExplore the techniques and styles used in producing manuscripts, from their earliest appearance to the 16th century. We'll consider the ways in which manuscripts were used and ask why such lavish attention was paid to them.Full fee £109.00 Senior fee £87.00 Concession £71.00 - Ulysses: Nostos - the HomecomingCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Tobin BrothersTo meet the challenge of reading Joyce, this online literature course will offer strategies and engage the second half of Ulysses to inspire both the new reader of Joyce and those revisiting his passionate experimentation.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - European architecture in the Middle Ages 800-1500Course start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard PlantExplore the development of architecture in Europe from the Carolingian period to the end of the middle ages and study the major monuments – cathedrals, parish churches and castles of the age.Full fee £109.00 Senior fee £109.00 Concession £71.00 - Transports of delight: London's railway stationsCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Blended (learn both online and in-person) (other locations are available)
Tutors: Eleanor JacksonLondon's stations see over 1 billion journeys annually, but the buildings themselves are often ignored. Explore a different station and environs each week, discovering the architecture, history, stories and future of these lifelines of London. The course starts with an initial zoom lecture followed by a series of walking tours.
This course will be delivered online and in person. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £95.00 - Paper Secrets: letters in novels from Julian Barnes to Tayari JonesCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonWould you ever open other people’s letters? This contemporary fiction course invites you to read intimate correspondence over characters’ shoulders, to piece together the stories of long-forgotten letters, and to watch stolen letters set comic and catastrophic events in motion. We’ll study four absorbing novels in detail, exploring ideas about memory, time and communication, and discovering how letters are tangled up in them all. Includes
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011), Claire Fuller, Swimming Lessons (2017), Denis Thériault, The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman (2017) and Tayari Jones, An American Marriage (2018).Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - Families, feuds and fictionsCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian Birkett“When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.” - Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz; “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - Leo Tolstoy
Unsurprisingly, novelists have always gravitated towards the dramatic potential of dysfunctional families, , and some of the finest novels of modern times have explored the tensions, disappointments (even occasional joys) of family life.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00
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