Image 1 of 1
Workshop description
We’re often taught that writing is about individual characters and relationships. Yet in today’s world the political feels more relevant than ever, and politics increasingly shapes and defines our actions, thinking and relationships in ways we can’t ignore. In this dynamic, innovative workshop, led by Harold Pinter Award-winning playwright, novelist and Hollywood screenwriter Anders Lustgarten, we’ll learn how our writing - whether overtly political or not - can engage with the structures, issues and ideas that shape our world and our narratives. Through lively discussion, close reading and writing exercises we’ll examine how we can explore the political in ways that deepens and enriches our work, and embeds our stories - from fiction to nonfiction, poetry to plays - in the real world, giving them relevance, energy and urgency and leaving us empowered, not intimidated, by the world around us.
About the tutor
Anders Lustgarten is a playwright, novelist and screenwriter. He won the Catherine Johnson Award for his play A Day at the Racists and the Harold Pinter Playwriting Award for If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep, while his first novel, Three Burials, about a nurse who kidnaps the dead body of a refugee to take to his family, was named a Times Best Crime Book of 2024 and one of French Vogue’s Best First Novels of 2025. His second novel, Kill Billionaire, about a fourteen-year-old Australian girl who kills billionaires to stop climate change, will be published in April 2026, and he is currently writing the screenplay for the Hollywood movie adaptation. He is also a lecturer and has devised creative writing programmes and taught in prisons in both the UK and the USA, including to prisoners on Death Row.