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 >
See what it's like be part a City Lit online creative writing course.
- Hindi beginners: short introductionCourse start date: Mon 3 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Roopam AggarwalLearn the basics of this captivating language with an emphasis on practical use and the development of your listening and speaking skills. Suitable for complete beginners. Learn to speak Hindi and develop your listening and speaking skills in this communicative class which emphasises the practical use of the language. Suitable for complete beginners.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - 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 - Introduction to Financial Assets
Course start date: Wed 5 Nov 2025Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rich CochraneLearn about the main types of asset traded on financial markets including shares, bonds and derivatives, including how and why they are used and the mathematical techniques used to value them.Full fee £499.00 Senior fee £399.00 Concession £324.00 - ‘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 cinema Course 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 - 20th to 21st Century War Poetry: British and InternationalCourse start date: Thu 6 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Stephen WinfieldExplore the astonishing range of poetic responses to a hundred years of warfare, acts of witnessing, endurance, defiance and condemnation by writers across the globe: Sassoon and Wilfred Owen in Britain, Brecht, Milosz, Celan, Akhmatova and Stepanova in Europe and Russia, Darwish and Zhadan in the Middle East and Ukraine, and many others. How do they describe the indescribable? High art or doggerel, what does it matter once the bombs start to fall?Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Friday lates: The East India Company and the passion for chintzCourse start date: Fri 7 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Anita ChowdryExplore the story of how Indian painted and printed cottons became an important trade commodity for the Western domestic market, and the far-reaching impact of their design and manufacture.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Sketching at the British Museum Course start date: Fri 7 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Mario Lautier VellaExplore the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks; learn and improve your drawing skills and 'ways of seeing' and understanding, working from an exciting range of objects and artifacts in The British Museum.
Please note - meet at Montague Place entrance - the front entrance is now only for ticket holders.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00 - Introduction to string quartetsCourse start date: Fri 7 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Pauline GreeneString quartets developed new musical forms and ensured success for many composers, whilst allowing an intimate conversation with their audiences. We trace the quartets of the masters from Haydn and Mozart to Shostakovich and beyond.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £104.00 - Social Media Building Better PostsCourse start date: Wed 12 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Amber Raney-KincadeThis course will discuss how to improve posts on social media. Each platform is unique, but you can learn to improve your content and present your business by creating better posts. You can no longer get away with a simple text message or a stolen image from Google. You must learn how to improve your posts in order to get the most from your social media.
Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Introduction to photography Course start date: Wed 12 Nov 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Dominic HarrisDiscover the basics of photography to improve your photographs and impress your friends. Learn about shutter speed, aperture, photo composition, light and taking pictures in different environments. This course is perfect for complete beginners or for learning new skills. Please take this course before enrolling on our intermediate courses.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Introduction to the Hebrew alphabetCourse start date: Wed 12 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rachel Montagu
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00 - Comedy sketch writing Course start date: Sat 15 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate SmurthwaiteDiscover the art of creating a great comedy sketch. Study the brilliance of classic sketches and learn how to deploy their techniques in your own work.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Islamic art at the British MuseumCourse start date: Sun 16 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Anita ChowdryTake a Sunday afternoon to explore the British Museum’s newly refurbished Islamic galleries and learn the stories behind one of the world’s great collections of Islamic art.
Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £23.00 Concession £19.00 - The meaning of light: symbolism and religious objects in world faiths Course start date: Sun 16 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Marilyn GreeneJoin this museum tour to explore world religions and the objects associated with light, from different faiths and festivals. NB: This course will take place at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The meeting point is the V&A grand entrance.
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