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 >
- Literary translation in practice (Portuguese into English)Course start date: Tue 14 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christina BaumDo you enjoy reading in Portuguese and writing in English? Are you interested in the similarities and differences between English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking cultures? Do you have a particular interest and/or background in literature, especially literature in other languages? Would you like to see if you have a special knack for translation, perhaps with a view to doing it professionally? Come and join this interactive translation course to hone your translation skills. - French 3 lower: conversationCourse start date: Wed 15 Oct 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michel WillameCome and practise your intermediate spoken French and develop your language skills in these topical discussion classes. Based on recordings from French television, radio news and newspaper articles.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £103.00 - Seeing inside paintingsCourse start date: Thu 16 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Caroline RaeDiscover the secrets of the Old Masters and learn how they created their wonderful effects in this introductory course on painters and painting. We will consider the physical history and scientific examination of artworks in relation to aspects including forgeries, hidden paintings and conservation/ restoration.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Debt in the global political economyCourse start date: Tue 21 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Caglar EzikogluExplore the intricacies of debt within the global political economy, examining its impacts, mechanisms, and socio-economic consequences.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Looking beyond headlines: colonialism and contemporary conflictsCourse start date: Wed 22 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Salome IetterThis course will provide a reflection on the colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial aspects and underpinnings of contemporary conflicts.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £51.00 - Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £19.00
- Friday lates: psychogeography: the art of getting lostCourse start date: Fri 24 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierFrom pub crawls to punk rock, via comic books, action painting and Hegelian philosophy; hear the unlikely tale of the Situationists: international artist-revolutionaries who tried to change the world itself into a work of art. - The Spanish Empire: Power, Conquest, and LegacyCourse start date: Tue 28 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Maisa EdwardsJoin Dr. Maisa Edwards to explore the rise, global reach and fall of the Spanish Empire from the 1400s to the 1800s.
Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - Russian 4: translation in practiceCourse start date: Wed 29 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Anna RiolandA practical, online translation course for Level 4 learners of Russian.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - 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 - 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 - 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 - ‘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
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