About this Event
Attention: This is the Berlin event. If you are looking for the London event at The Feminist Library (Peckham), follow on Eventbrite for updates.
Underlying the famously big gap between fiction and nonfiction, there’s a rather naive belief that fiction is invented—that it’s pulled out of thin air.<h4>—Helen Garner</h4>
First novels are famously autobiographical and there is a dictum emerging writers hear again and again: Write what you know.
In this creative writing workshop led by poet Demi Anter (Small Machine) and novelist Pip Finkemeyer (Sad Girl Novel), participants will learn how writers twist the truth to create brave new worlds while staying grounded in reality.
Pip and Demi will share an array of approaches to writing fiction and poetry by presenting works by novelists, essayists and poets, and leading generative creative writing exercises.
Asking questions like—How can the persona of the self be used in works of fiction? and, how can you a develop a character and story when that character and story are so closely intertwined with real life? —participants explore the blurred line that exists between fact and fiction in literature.
The workshop is suitable for writers of all experience levels and is not constrained to any one genre. This is an ideal workshop for those who feel nervous about writing from their own experiences. This is also a space for writers seeking to imbue their work with a stronger sense of detail, place and time.
This workshop will be conducted in English (Demi can also give feedback in German), but attendees are welcome to write in any language they wish.
Tell stories filled with facts. Make people touch and taste and know. Make people feel! Feel! Feel!<h4>—Octavia E. Butler</h4>
About the Instructors
is a fiction writer living in Naarm/Melbourne. Her debut Sad Girl Novel was published in 2023. You can find her writing in Harper’s Bazaar, K*ll Your Darlings Magazine, Big Issue Magazine, Eleven Stories: The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, Mojo Best of Fiction Anthology, and more. She has a Masters in Publishing and Editing from RMIT. She’s currently working on her second novel.
is an award-winning writer and performer, with work spanning poetry, creative nonfiction, script- and playwriting. She has been published in the US, Europe and the UK by Magma, Banshee and The Times, and has performed at Glastonbury Festival, Bristol Old Vic, Poetry Ireland and more. Her teaching focuses on the power of writing from personal experience, and she has conducted workshops at various institutions throughout the world. Her poetry collection Small Machine, which documents her five and a half years in Berlin, was published by Write Bloody UK in 2022. Chanel Miller called it, "Strikingly luminous and soothing." Musa Okwonga called it, "Tender, visceral, beautifully vulnerable."
What others have said:
“Demi is an incredible teacher and inspiring leader. She holds the space for curiosity, allowing questions as you go, while creating an atmosphere that is welcoming and conducive to learning.”
“Without question, my time with Demi in her workshop pushed me to become a better, more focused and productive writer, and I look forward to working with her again.”
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Shakespeare & Sons - Fine Bagels, Warschauer Straße 74, Berlin, Germany
EUR 33.14