Thirty Week Fiction / Memoir Course - online & classroom options
Note: In 2020 we transitioned to Zoom during lock-down periods.
This course is for those who want to write a novel, short stories, or a memoir / autobiography. We provide a fun and stimulating environment in which you can discover your authentic writing voice. Many graduates of this course have published books, some in London and New York.
The two semester CLASSROOM version of the course starts 29 Sept 2020 and runs until May 2021 with a break for one-on-one mentoring over the summer. It is chaired by John Cranna, Creative Hub founder, who was voted Best Post-Graduate Teacher by students at AUT University. The course can done ONLINE at any time. It features the same course material, but you are provided one-on-one guidance by our experienced tutors. The ONLINE course features SKYPE / Zoom interaction with your tutor, and video presentations by our leading authors.
Course director John Cranna is also the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, and the NZ Book Award for Fiction. The main feature of the CLASSROOM course is a weekly three hour group meeting, in which student work is discussed and critiqued in an informal but supportive environment. Craft and technical issues arise organically from discussion of this work. Students on both versions of the course keep a reading and writing journal, which helps chart their development.
A number of successful NZ fiction writers and editors hold specialist craft workshops during the course; these include new rising authors such as Ruby Porter and Eileen Merriman, plus established writers Roger Hall, Tessa Duder, Fiona Sussman, Stuart Hoar, Judith White and Penguin-Random House fiction publisher Harriet Allan who provides insight into the kind of manuscripts they accept. The main craft issues of dialogue, character, plot and structure, point of view, description, voice and theme will all be addressed during group sessions.
In addition, each student will be matched to an established NZ fiction / memoir writer or editor, for one-on-one mentoring. This is the ninth year the course has run, and personal mentors on the course include Sue Reidy, Elizabeth Smither, Lynn Davidson, Ruby Porter, Rosetta Allan, Stuart Hoar, Finlay MacDonald and Jenny Haworth. Several of our teachers have won the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.
At the end of the course, the student will be provided with an analysis, in the form of a publisher's readers report, on the strengths and weaknesses of her / his manuscript. Successful completion of the course will result in the award of the Higher Certificate in Writing from the Creative Hub.
In the last three years thirty of our graduates have published novels or won prizes in national or international writing awards. See here for more details.
Graduates of the Introduction to Creative Writing Course, or Summer Fiction School, receive a 10% discount on this course's fees.
Students can pay the course fee by interest free monthly payments, spread over two years. If you are interested in taking up this option, please contact The Creative Hub for more information.
Enroll for either version of this course now by hitting the button below.
Your place on the course is secured by a deposit of $480 incl GST
Download Fiction Course Calendar 2020-21
Download Fiction Course 2020-21 Outline and FAQ
Click here to read feedback from John Cranna's Fiction/Memoir Writing Course students
