CREATIVE WRITING COURSES

If you have a large project you are working on and would appreciate specific feedback and input, Sue offers one to one Mentoring Sessions.
 

“Sue’s experience and knowledge shines through in the feedback she gives and has given me the confidence to write things I would never have imagined myself capable of.”
Ghyslaine, King’s Lynn

Sue’s themes were eclectic and different from the subject matter I typically write about which helped me discover new material.   Several of the poems I wrote from her prompts have been published.
Jennifer, San Francisco

“Sue Burge is a wonderfully warm, highly experienced tutor of all kinds of creative writing.   What was so thrilling and rewarding was watching people — some self-avowed non-writers or poets — lose their fear and trepidation and write some amazing pieces.”
Gaynor Clements, Director, Cambridge Writing Retreat www.cambridgewritingretreat.com

“I’ve attended a number of Sue’s creative writing day workshops and courses.   Sue provides excellent prompts and exercises and is fully conversant with the latest teaching methods and trends in the publishing industry.   As such, she can provide students with bespoke advice on their writing goals.”
Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Author of “Glass” — Paper Swans Press (2016) and “Sightings” — Pindrop Press (2016)

 

 

NEW WAYS INTO MEMOIR
THE LYRIC ESSAY

Four fortnightly sets of prompts via e-mail (to arrive in your inbox on:
26 March, 9 April, 23 April, 7 May
plus two Zoom sessions 16 April and 14 May 7-9pm

Fee: £140 includes all materials, Zoom sessions and feedback on approx 6,000 words of your work in progress

Loyal to that original sense of essay as a test or a quest, an attempt at making sense, the lyric essay sets off on an uncharted course through interlocking webs of idea, circumstance, and language – a pursuit with no foreknown conclusion, an arrival that might still leave the writer questioning.
Deborah Tall and John D’Agata

When we write in the mode of the lyric essay, we create not only prose pieces but a portrait of our subconscious selves, the part of us that speaks in riddles or in brief, imagistic flashes.
Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola

In this course we will explore different ways to approach the idea of the lyric essay.   We will look at a wide range of writers such as Brenda Miller, Kim Moore, Maggie Nelson, Abi Palmer, Ciaran Carson and George Szirtes, who favour a non-linear and more experimental approach to creative non-fiction.   We will explore the idea of journaling as a means of expression and also how lyric poetry (a close relation to the lyric essay) can help us to both tighten our prose writing and experiment more with metaphor and symbolism.   We will look at hybrid forms and how they can bring a new energy and creativity to our writing.   In the Zoom sessions there will be an opportunity to discuss these approaches in greater depth, to try out some extra writing exercises, and to share new writing.

Contact Sue for more details and how to book and pay.

 

 

NEW WAYS INTO THE POETRY OF PLACE

Venue: East Runton (Norfolk) – exact address given with further course details after booking
Saturday 20th April 2024   10.30 – 16.30
Tutors: Andrea Holland and Sue Burge

Fee: £55 includes tea, coffee, cake and biscuits, lunch (choice of two vegetarian soups and savoury scones/bread) and all materials

In this workshop Andrea and Sue will explore different ways of bringing places to life poetically, whether this a warm spot by the fire, an imaginary city or a harbour with kids crabbing over the edge.

Both tutors are experienced poets of place. Andrea’s collection, Broadcasting, focuses on the forced requisition of several Norfolk villages for D-Day training in 1942, and the subsequent dislocation of villagers and community. In her current collection Andrea uses poetry as lyric memoir and centres on her experiences as a young immigrant to New York in the early 1980s. In The Saltwater Diaries, Sue explores her ongoing relationship with the sea, while both her pamphlet, Lumière, and her most recent collection, The Artificial Parisienne, evoke her long and edgy relationship with Paris.

Come and celebrate the places that inspire you via innovative prompts designed to produce fresh and original new writing.

Contact Sue for more details and how to book and pay.

 

“During her writing courses, Sue always stimulates our creativity by many means, including visiting places of local interest. Last autumn we visited All Saints’ Church in King’s Lynn, and it was while shuffling through the leaves and looking at the old gravestones, that the idea of “Waiting” started to take shape. Sue encouraged me to send it to Writers’ Forum, I took the leap into the unknown, and to my delight, they published it.”
Rose, Snettisham

“I love coming to Sue’s creative writing class. It’s very relaxed and friendly and after the first week I didn’t mind reading what I’d written to others in the group. We’ve covered prose and different forms of poetry, and as an extra we’ve even done bookmaking with a guest tutor which I really enjoyed!”
Tessa, King’s Lynn

“I‘ve found it fascinating how class discussion and exercises generate both interesting work and other unrelated ideas to pursue individually; how some ideas arrive nearly fully-formed while others need the individual support and feedback from Sue and the rest of the group to bring to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Phil, Blackborough End, Norfolk