Writing Place

Writing Place - Weekend Courses

Come along, explore different neighbourhoods, and develop new work inspired by place on this experiential writing course.

Taking place on the last Saturday and Sunday of the month, this course will take you to three different areas across the city (Dalston, Tooting, and Warwick Avenue), where we will explore, encounter, and develop new writing prompted by the places we visit and the stories that we uncover. You can choose to book onto one, two or all three weekend courses.

We’ll reflect on the ways writers, including Benjamin Zephaniah, Robert McFarlane, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Elena Ferrante, evoke a sense of place in their writing and how this shapes their work.

This course will enable you to:

• develop your writing skills

• discover London neighbourhoods

• learn how to find hidden gems and stories

• produce new work that captures the spirit of place (from poetry and short stories to life writing and speculative fiction)

• share your writing and have it workshopped by your peers

• explore different themes and ideas through a series of prompts

• be part of a friendly and inclusive writing community

Workshops will take place from 10:30am - 3pm. Materials provided. Maximum 8 spaces. Courses cost £149 per weekend.

Day one: A Neighbourhood Wandering

The first day will consist of a wandering around a specific neighbourhood. On the way, you’ll explore hidden gems and discover stories of the people and place that make the neighbourhood unique. You will also be given writing prompts on different themes to help you spark ideas.

Day two: Writing Workshop

The second day will be classroom-based. You will learn the basics of place writing and develop new work inspired by the previous day’s wandering. You’ll be given the opportunity to share your writing with your peers and to give and receive feedback. You will be invited to consider the ways you engage with the city and can use place as inspiration.

What is Place Writing?

Place writing is a popular literary genre across creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, in which place (be it a natural landscape, city, or any other location) is the primary subject. It seeks to explore the relationships between people and their physical, social and cultural environment. It goes beyond simply describing a setting and delves into the deeper meaning, significance, and impact of place on individuals and communities.

About the Tutor

Saira Niazi has been writing about places for over fifteen years. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Goldsmiths College. In 2023, Niazi was shortlisted for the prestigious Art Foundation Futures Award for Place Writing. In 2020, she self-published a book of personal essays, “On Belonging: Reflections of a Renegade Guide”. Shortly after, she was invited to be the writer-in-residence at Southside House for nine months. Her writing has been published in various journals, including Huck, Ace Reader and the New Statesman. Niazi was the recipient of a Shifting the Gaze bursary from Writing Our Legacy and the South Downs National Park for which she wrote a series of short stories exploring diverse characters’ connection to site specific places in the chalk downs like the Chattri, the Seven Sisters and the dew ponds at Ditchling.

As part of her role as Community Stories Lead at Slow Ways, she wrote about her long-distance walks and the uncanny sights, sounds and smells she experienced as she traversed areas across England, Scotland and Wales. In recent months, she completed a creative non-fiction project entitled “Renegade Guides: The Places We Go, The Stories We Share” as part of a research project on guiding, community allyship and best practice. She also completed her first national art commission and wrote a long-form essay delving into the world of oysters, seagrass and kelp. She has run various writing, and creative workshops over the years.