Writing Berlin: 6-Week Creative Writing Course

This spring, the course will be held in person for the first time at the Shakespeare & Sons bookstore over six weekly sessions.

Throughout its history, Berlin has repeatedly inspired the imagination of writers and creatives. In this creative writing course led by author and performer Demi Anter, we will explore poetry and prose inspired by this city and explore ways to tell our own Berlin stories.

With Berlin as a starting point, participants are warmly invited to turn their attention to other places that interest them. We will discuss strategies that can help authors convey a sense of a place and how to engage all the senses—not just sight—when describing it on paper.

Further information can be found via the booking link.

About the Instructor

Demi Anter is an award-winning writer and performer whose teaching focuses on the power of writing drawn from personal experience. She has led workshops at various institutions worldwide, including the Royal National Theatre, the Irish Cultural Centre in London, and YEN. Her poems have been published in Magma, Banshee, and The Times (UK), among others, and have been featured at the Glastonbury Festival, the Scottish Storytelling Centre, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Poetry Ireland.

In 2023, she presented “Bowie in Berlin” alongside Rory MacLean at the first Sherborne Travel Writing Festival. Her poetry collection “Small Machine,” which documents her five and a half years in Berlin, was published in 2022 by Write Bloody UK. Chanel Miller called it “strikingly luminous and soothing.” Musa Okwonga called it “delicate, profound, beautifully vulnerable.”

This workshop took place for the first time in 2023 at Shakespeare & Sons and was completely sold out. Demi later expanded “Writing Berlin” into a six-week online course and now organizes “The Venice Workshop,” which draws on her experience writing and teaching about places.

Since early 2025, Demi has been leading workshops in collaboration with Architects for Tempelhofer Feld, encouraging participants from all backgrounds to discover creative writing as a tool for heritage preservation and activism.

What others say:

“Demi is an incredible teacher and an inspiring leader. She creates space for curiosity, welcomes questions, and fosters a welcoming and supportive learning environment.”

“The time I spent with Demi in her workshop has undoubtedly made me a better, more focused, and more productive writer, and I look forward to continuing to work with her.”