Creative writing - Activities - Literature - British Council

	creative writing


	Introduction by Patricia Duncker

‘What do you have to do to become a famous best selling writer?’ Donna Tartt, the enigmatic author of The Secret History and The Little Friend, tackled this frequently – asked – question. She had a one – word answer. ‘Read.’ I would agree with her. Anyone who writes seriously and well is bound to be an impassioned reader because that is how you learn. From reading you gather all you need to know about form, register, technique, style, metaphor, genre. Most of the university writing courses in the UK are either linked to the Literature courses or include a major component on learning how to read as a writer, that is, reading not only for content, but also for method. Some students come to writing from other disciplines. I know writer-tutors with academic backgrounds in law, science and foreign languages. But they are all great readers in their own language and in the forms in which they write. Of course we all have our comfort reading, which will be predictable and reassuring. But the reading we do as intellectuals is a form of continuing education, a perpetual stretching of the muscles in the mind.

Read the rest of the article by novelist Patricia Duncker

Literature



		Creative reading


		Creative writing


		Literature, Language and Culture


		Literary translation


		Playwriting


		Poetry


		Science and Literature


		Sport in Literature


		Storytelling


		Children and Young people's literature

creative writing links

An extensive and wide-ranging list of links to creative writing websites.

Organisations Links

Arvon
Literature Training
Granta.com

creative writing projects and events around the world

Please see the Literature News for recent and upcoming events.

Matt Whyman in Yemen
Teen fiction author Matt Whyman held a three-day creative writing workshop with budding young authors in Sana'a, Yemen. Throughout the trip Matt kept a highly entertaining weblog on the British Council's EnCompass Culture website, which you can read under the July and August 2007 archives.

Matt Whyman in Yemen

Matt Whyman, standing at the back, with a group of creative writing students in Sana'a, Yemen.

US British Council Writer in Residence
Nadeem Aslam, the award-winning author of the book Maps for Lost Lovers (which took an impressive 11 years to write), will be the British Council Writer in Residence at the English Department of George Washington University for four weeks during Autumn 2007.

Medi Cafe
Launched late January 2007, participants selected by competitions are mentored by UK creative writing tutors and take part in live workshops and online mentoring using a purpose-built website. Participants use a private workshop area where they can upload their work in progress and participate in online tutorials using web boards and chat. The aim of the project is to build a virtual community of writers exploring Arabic and North African writing in English.

Radiophonics
Following on from the success of the online scriptwriting workshop and the Prose Workshops, Radiophonics is the new African writing initiative from the British Council. On this site you will be able to listen to and read new stories from Uganda and Nigeria, the participating countries.

British Council Creative Writing Publications

New Writing

The British Council's annual anthology of the most exciting contemporary UK and Commonwealth writing including previously unpublished poetry, short stories, extracts from novels and non-fiction pieces. It is accompanied by a website for readers and teachers all over the world featuring selected texts. Texts are available online alongside teachers' pages, readers' notes, interviews and glossaries. New Writing 15, edited by Bernardine Evaristo and Maggie Gee, was published by Granta in June 2007.