The Invisible College

BBC Radio 4

4.8 (12)
ARTS

Lessons in creative writing from a ghostly array of great novelists, poets and playwrights such as Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats and Allen Ginsberg. Presented and produced by Cathy FitzGerald.

06/04/2017

Lesson Eighteen: Writer’s Block

“You’re in the middle of writing something and your mind goes blank… ok, you’re being warned, aren’t you?” Discover Ray Bradbury’s simple trick for overcoming writer’s block.

9 min
06/04/2017

Lesson Seventeen: What I Learned from James Baldwin

Contemporary novelist Caryl Phillips close reads a dramatic passage from ‘Another Country’ by James Baldwin to see what we can learn from the great American writer.

9 min
06/04/2017

Lesson Sixteen: Dealing with Critics

If you’re going to put your work out in the world, then sooner or later, someone’s going to take a pop at it. This lesson features tips on handling critics from novelists John Fowles and Graham Greene, plus some unexpected behaviour from Henry James.

10 min
05/28/2017

Lesson Fifteen: Write and Repeat

“Easy reading is damned hard writing,” says Maya Angelou. Hear the many pains she takes to ‘sharpen her language’ in this lesson about revising your work.

10 min
05/28/2017

Lesson Fourteen: In Search of a Character with Graham Greene

Hear how Graham Greene gradually evolves a character – and a novel - on a research trip to a leper colony in the Congo.

8 min
05/28/2017

Lesson Thirteen: Place

Sometimes the world gives writers a location so atmospheric it’s just waiting for a back story. But how do we do it justice? Poet Ted Hughes, diarist Christopher Isherwood and Vladimir Nabokov on capturing the soul of a place in words.

10 min
05/22/2017

Lesson Twelve: A Workshop with Allen Ginsberg

How often do you get the chance to attend a lecture by one of the Beats? An extraordinary opportunity to spend time with poet Allen Ginsberg, as he explains Jack Kerouac’s theory of writing.

10 min
05/22/2017

Lesson Eleven: Listen Up!

If you want to write good dialogue, you need good ears. Listen to all the little idiosyncrasies of an individual voice: the cadences, elisions, flourishes. With an extended reading from short-story writer and poet, Grace Paley.

9 min

See All (18)

4.8

out of 5

12 Ratings

Wonderful

04/23/2019

LiamOCQ

Simply the greatest podcast on writing I’ve ever listened to. An inspirational masterpiece, I hope they produce a follow-up someday.

Lessons in creative writing from a ghostly array of great novelists, poets and playwrights such as Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats and Allen Ginsberg. Presented and produced by Cathy FitzGerald.