In her workshop series ‘Writing Berlin’, Demi Anter invites participants to explore the various perspectives through which writers view Berlin: as a historical setting, a holiday destination, through literature, through their own bodies, or as a place of belonging.
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Writing Berlin
The course will take place this autumn as a series of six weekly in-person sessions at the Shakespeare & Sons bookshop.
Throughout its history, Berlin has repeatedly captured the imagination of writers and creative minds. In this creative writing course led by the author and performer Demi Anter, we will explore poetry and prose inspired by this city and discover 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 the strategies that can help writers convey a sense of place, and how to engage all the senses – not just sight – when describing it on paper.
This course includes a special Q&A session with bestselling travel writer Rory MacLean (*Berlin: Imagine a City*).
Further information can be found via the booking link.
About the course leader
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), amongst 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 chronicles her five-and-a-half years in Berlin, was published by Write Bloody UK in 2022. Chanel Miller described it as ‘impressively luminous and soothing’. Musa Okwonga described it as “delicate, profound, beautifully vulnerable”.
This workshop was first held at Shakespeare & Sons in 2023 and was completely sold out. Demi later expanded ‘Writing Berlin’ into a six-week online course and now organises ‘The Venice Workshop’, which is based on her experiences of writing and teaching about places.
Since early 2025, Demi has been running workshops in collaboration with Architects for Tempelhofer Feld, encouraging participants from all backgrounds to discover creative writing as a means of 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 working with her again.”
- Time: Tuesdays, starting Oct 6, 7 - 9 pm
- Location: Shakespeare & Sons Bookstore, Warschauer Straße 74, Berlin
- Ticket Price: €240.91 - 294.18
