Why write?
“The world being what it is I write to redress the balance, at least in my own mind. I want to keep an inner life alive and, with luck, somebody else’s too. Imaginative writing, to me, is a way of discovering who we are, and what we have to contend with; discovering what is out there, and also what is not there. It enables me to think and explore and make something new with language, while trying to make sense of our lives.”
"Life being what it is, I dream of revenge" Paul Gauguin
Writing Tips
Check out the Writers' & Artists' Companion to Novel Writing published by Bloomsbury, written by Romesh Gunesekera and A L Kennedy.
In the meantime, the place to go to is Blog for Writers.
Teaching
Romesh Gunesekera was one of the first writers on the First Story project, which linked writers to local state schools to run a series of after-school workshops and foster creativity. He was linked to Highgate Wood School for three years. Read more about First Story …
He also teaches at
- Goldsmiths College
- the Arvon Foundation
- the Guardian Masterclass Series
His summer workshop in Greece in 2008 was listed as a Top Ten activity destination in the Sunday Times.
In March 2013, he joined Amit Chaudhuri in Kolkata to run UEA’s first overseas creative writing workshop. To get a flavour of the workshop have a look at the video below.
Madeira
In 2004 and 2008 Romesh visited Madeira where he discovered several schools working with his fiction to develop creative writing, English studies and theatre as part of the British Council's BritLit project. The short video gives a flavour of what was going on.
Kolkata
In March 2013, he joined Amit Chaudhuri in Kolkata to run UEA’s first overseas creative writing workshop. To get a flavour of the workshop have a look at the video below.
Romesh has also been a writing mentor on the first Arts Council scheme, as well as the first Arvon/Jerwood mentoring scheme.
Currently he mentors a small number of new writers through the highly commended Gold Dust Mentoring Scheme. New mentees are taken every three months or so when a place becomes available.
Doing a workshop, or a course, or being mentored does not guarantee a book or a publication, but some students do get published. Go to New Writers to see some examples.
Here are some comments from recent participants on one of Romesh's fiction workshops:
"Incredible session. Really helped me to explore my fiction writing, as well as look at really useful tips to start and complete our fiction writing."
"Warm and inspirational!"
