This course offers to teach students the basics of storytelling and inspire them to find their own unique writing voice and style. The course combines theoretical elements such as literary analysis of short stories with practical daily writing sessions where students will write on assigned prompts. An essential part of this course is peer review and feedback, where students will closely examine each other’s work.

In this three week programme, students will examine specific topics such as character development, setting, dialogue, point of view (POV), detail, writing with the senses, etc.  The course will also have a visit to an art museum where students will immerse themselves and choose a painting which speaks to them before writing reflective art essay on it. Students will also have the opportunity to hear from professional writers who will share their experiences with their creative process and techniques, followed by an open discussion.

Dr. Jana Zilova is a passionate teacher and writer, currently teaching courses in creative writing at the Prague School of Creative Communication and at the Literary Academy in Prague. She has taught creative writing, literature, and film at Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, in Paris. She worked as a writer and editor at WAN-IFRA, World Association of News Publishers, in Paris. Recently, she completed a course on creative writing at Stanford University. She is also the co-chair of a Screenwriting Workgroup within the platform NECS, the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies.Her research encompasses the analysis of contemporary short stories and creative writing techniques. Her academic work was published by Routledge, Campanotto Editore, and Interdisciplinary Press. She published articles in Prague Literary Review, Cinepur, The Prague Compass. Her poetry was published in an anthology of poetry, Sleep Snatcher, in 1998. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and a novella.

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