Writing Courses & Workshops Online & in London
Be inspired to write, and learn how to get published at the college where Andrea Levy, Malorie Blackman, Anna Burns, and other celebrated authors studied. Read our success stories to see what's possible for you as a writer.
Learn from published authors
Whether you're just starting out or ready to publish your first book, the benefits of our writing courses include expert tuition from a published author and feedback on your work as you develop your writing skills. There will also be opportunities to participate in group discussions and activities with fellow students.
Unheard Voices Scholarship
City Lit’s Malorie Blackman Scholarships for 'Unheard Voices' provide three annual awards to fund one year’s study within the Creative Writing department at City Lit. Learn more >
- Philosophy reading group: Descartes's MeditationsCourse start date: Wed 29 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Karl WhiteDescartes’ Meditations is arguably the foundational text of modern Western philosophy influencing not only the what of philosophy, but the how and the why. Reading it together, we’ll discover the stone that created ripples still affecting our thinking today.
Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £51.00 - Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00
- Greek philosophy: the Hellenistic periodCourse start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: John GoffThe pursuit of happiness is ongoing. In the ancient Greek world this gave rise to several ‘philosophies of life’ that remain the cornerstone of contemporary attitudes. Join this course to explore their key sources. - Fact and Fantasy: English Houses in FictionCourse start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Phyllis RichardsonWhy have so many British authors set stories in and around an important house? How does the structure, history and atmosphere of a great house affect plot and narrative? And where do authors derive their inspiration to build fictional houses that capture readers’ imaginations so fully? The novels on this course all focus on one finely imagined house and demonstrate the author’s own personal concerns of the time.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Art in theory: What is creativity?Course start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
This critical studies course for developing artists and makers explores the concept of creativity and what it means to be an artist, drawing on a range of cultural theories and work by creative practitioners to help inspire and enhance creative and critical thinking.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £139.00 - Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00
- Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00
- Art and Refugees in HampsteadCourse start date: Sun 2 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Marilyn GreeneCome on a walking tour of Hampstead discovering where refugee artists from the Second World War lived and the people and institutions which made great efforts to save and support them.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - National Portrait GalleryCourse start date: Mon 12 May 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowDiscover portraiture and the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Different periods and styles are discussed each week in front of the portraits.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - French 4/5 : Cinq semaines, un livre:Course start date: Mon 3 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Would you like to read a contemporary book in French? Join this class and delve into the world of a French author while simultaneously expanding your knowledge of vocabulary and appreciating a writing style.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £111.00 Concession £90.00 - Prostitution in Ancient RomeCourse start date: Tue 4 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sean GabbThe oldest profession as practised among the Romans - not for the squeamish.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - French 5: Maupassant : une vie, une œuvreCourse start date: Tue 4 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Pierre PorcheronVenez découvrir Maupassant, journaliste et auteur. Reconnu de son vivant, il conserve un renom de premier plan, renouvelé encore par les nombreuses adaptations filmées de ses œuvres, composées de romans et nouvelles situés entre réalisme et fantastique. Un auteur du XIX siècle aux intonations modernes !Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - German for history lovers (intermediate and advanced)Course start date: Wed 5 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Anna RiolandThis is an intermediate to advanced German language course for lovers of German history.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - ‘Stranger’ Things: Muriel Spark’s ShapeshiftingCourse start date: Wed 5 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Fiona McCullochThis course will introduce and discuss two novels by eminent author, Muriel Spark- Memento Mori (1959) and The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960). Her writing wilfully upends notions of conformity and acts as a disrupter to accepted conventions. Instead, ‘Spark beckons us to encounter the stranger’ (Marilyn Reizbaum). Playfully disrupting passive readers and stretching comfort zones, Spark’s work provides a space to access unaccustomed outlooks that make us rethink our relationship with ourselves, others, and the world. Instead of unconsciously going with the flow, she awakens us to life’s stranger things.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Image and identity: 20th century Chinese art and cinemaCourse start date: Wed 5 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Meitao QuExplore the work of Chinese artists and filmmakers between the turn of the 20th century to the turn of the 21st as they try to make sense of a world caught on the cusp between the old and the new. What place did art and cinema have in socio-political movements, and how did visual culture reflect the hopes and anxieties of the time?Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
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