International Summer School

Writing the city

A creative writing workshop on urban landscapes and the literary flâneur/flâneuse

Applications are now closed.

A practical, one-week creative writing course that enables you to develop your own original literary work in response to the urban environment.

We contextualise the writer in the city by examining such concepts as the literary flâneuse as urban explorer and the poetics of place, as well as exploring some of the narratives of the built environment and the ways in which the wild takes root in the city. It is a chance to learn about the wider context of urban and experimental writing through seminars, workshops and the production of literary non-fiction, fiction, poetry or hybrid work.

Glasgow is a vibrant creative city with a thriving artistic scene that embraces numerous forms and disciplines – especially writing. It is also a city with incredible built heritage, including medieval houses from the 15th century, an atmospheric Victorian necropolis, enough parks to earn it the literary nickname ‘the dear green place’, hidden murals by Alasdair Gray, and the stunning Gothic university at which this course is based. The Creative Writing programme at University of Glasgow is the oldest and most prestigious in Scotland, with a strong ethos of encouraging a supportive community of writers and an openness to form and genre.