Ateliers d'écriture

 

Eleventh workshop / January, 6th 2026 - Architecture behind the wor(l)ds: From Draft to the Full Text
She stuffed all the presents under the table, reserving one for herself. Settling at her desk, she turned the first page of a notebook covered with the image of a little black cat. She wrote, then deleted, then wrote again... The lights from the gas lamps on either side stayed on until dawn. Here we start, again...

The new year arrives with resolutions, and, of course, with new writing project ideas. Yay! ☺ But how do we transform an idea into a full text? At what point, and in what ways, do we find or create inspiration for the first sentence? What are the steps we can follow to craft a piece from scratch? In our first workshop of the year (so exciting!), we’ll explore strategies and methods for designing new writing projects. We’ll also take a reflective journey to discover the themes and topics that move us personally—the essential first step in developing meaningful work. 

As always, we’ll write together, using prompts designed to spark fresh ideas and help you begin your writing projects! 

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Tenth workshop / December, 2nd 2025 - Writing Winter Blues

The summer sun faded slowly, then the leaves left trees—in yellow, orange, and pink. The snowflake landed on my tongue...  My neck tilted to the sky; I breathe in clouds to breathe out stories now. 
 

The wind rattling bare branches, the rain lashing the roof, snow covering the asphalt road, thunder echoing off the walls inside... And then—wool blankets, soft pillows, wood crackling in the fire, hot wine, glowing markets, winter crops, and quiet expectations. Winter, with all its charm and gloom, has long inspired artists, especially in certain regions and genres. During our December workshop, we’ll trace winter’s literary footsteps and explore the theme of melancholy in Scandinavian writing.
 

For sure, we’ll continue crafting our own pieces too, guided by prompts and the words of philosophers like Aristotle, Walter Benjamin, and more...

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Ninth workshop – November, 4th 2025 - Where is your home?

Traffic lights, screaming horns, neon lights of the shops and the dark night descending outside... My luggage, stuffed with a piece of clothing and a pair of shoes inside... I touch the gold comb that mother attached to my hair before I left... I left... seeking my home. 
 

Where do you find your home? In a landscape, encoded in your favorite object, in the eyes of your oldest friend, on the branches of a tree, or in the language(s) you speak? In our November workshop, we’ll explore philosophical and psychological approaches to the concept of home and its relationship with creativity: Do we find inspiration in our own cocoons or away from it? How do we build an imaginary home for our characters to inhabit? In what ways do we craft a language for them to speak? Posing these questions and oscillating between the familiar and the uncanny, we’ll delve into the meaning of home for readers, literary characters, and authors alike. 
 

Surely, we’ll also be writing our own pieces, guided by thoughtful prompts, in an atmosphere as cozy and comforting as a soft blanket and a cup of ginger tea.

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Eight workshop / October, 7th 2025 -  “I want a monster to be my friend!”

“Little prince, from the dark forest to the deepest seas, show me your deep-down fears,” I said, looking at the caterpillar in my palm. His heart grew slowly and paused to say: “The metamorphosis, my end and rebirth, will tell you all.” In blue, purple, and yellow... fears flew away...

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In our October workshop, drawing on the fears and desires, we’ll journey into the realm of monstrosity: witches, werewolves, vampires, zombies, aliens, robots, or spirits... Who is the monster? Who defines monstrosity? And what does it reveal about our inner and outer worlds? Through these questions, we’ll explore the functions of monstrosity in literature and in life.
 

So be safe. Hide beneath your cloak. And come to the bookshop! Find us behind the pumpkins and the herbs hanging from the ceiling. Be quiet, and don’t turn on the light.
 

Together, we’ll write the stories of monsters—inside and outside— guided by (oh my) some truly scary prompts!

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Seventh workshop / September, 2nd 2025 - A cup of Tea and a piece of Cake... (full)

“What a street, huh?” he said, pointing to the steam rising from the bakery on the corner. We smiled and added, “These are the traces of fantasies!”

 

What role does food play in fiction writing? What is the connection between cooking and writing? How can we use food and beverages to structure narratives, develop characters, or infuse metaphoric meanings into our stories, drawing on the flavors and cultures that surround it? We’ll be exploring these questions during our September workshop where we’ll be wining the delicious dimensions of writing and dining on the creative aspects of cooking.

 

Of course, we’ll also be writing! Guided by prompts inspired by the scents of late summer’s linden trees, and a dash of chocolate sauce, we’ll create our own pieces.

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Sixth workshop / July, 2nd - Letters of the Sea: Sailors, Dockworkers and Beyond (full)

Flowers blossom. And I walk in the dark— through the

twisting alley of the city of carnations... searching for us, as we

were, left in an old sepia photograph, the sea behind us.

 

Sailors, passengers, workers, traders, pirates, lovers, sirens... and the light of the moon and the night— all come together on

the surface of the sea and invite us into a journey of discovery. A discovery of the sea’s world with all the lives it holds above

and below.

 

And what better time than July for this voyage?

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Inspired by the sensations of the sea, our July workshop will explore its representations and meanings in fiction. As a powerful space that connects cultures and languages, the sea—and especially harbor cities—will be our thematic anchor. We’ll  examine how these cities appear in literature and how they helped stories travel across borders.

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And of course, taking the sea as the place where poetry begins, we’ll write our own pieces as well, guided by homemade prompts!

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Fifth workshop / June, 4th - Love me, Live me, Unpronounce me: in Between the Lines, in Between the Genders ​

They poured a glass of wine: Coral red, spicy, and fruity.
I fell— the world collapsed around me.
They fell into pieces: As women and men,
They surrounded me.

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We write lines of poetry and prose— lines marked by the gendered structures of languages. We walk the streets by day or

in darkness— our bodies read as gendered signs. We write as women and men— our experiences absorbed into gendered

categories.

But what happens when the text stops obeying the rules of the gendered structure? What shifts when the narrator defies being clearly male or female? In what ways can writing exceed or resist the binary?

 

In our June workshop, we’ll explore these questions and more. Together, we’ll dive into thegender dimension of writing, and discuss what makes literature queer and what it means to write queerly.

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And, of course, we’ll continue crafting our own pieces, guided by some delightfully queer prompts.

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Fourth workshop / May, 6th - "Bread and Roses": Writing as a Form of Protest (full)

We rise with anger and hope, grief and joy, fear and determination. We rise, fueled by the belief in a better world.With a piece of paper and a pen or pencil...

 

A sure-handed poet turns those feelings and emotions into verses to be recited in the crowd—like Louis Aragon, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg or Nâzım Hikmet. Activists transcribe their words onto banners, street walls, and barricades,as they did during the 1968 revolts and the countless movements before and since. Together, they make a poem—for the street and in the street.

 

In the fourth session of our writing workshop, we will explore the deep connection between literary arts and acts of protest. We will ask: Do writers have a responsibility to engage with societal and political issues? What are the functions of fictions for protest cultures and vice versa? Can the poetic ever be separated from the political?

 

And, of course, we will write—crafting our own pieces guided by prompts and letting ourwords rise!

 

Third workshop / April, 3rd - The Wind Whispers, and We Write with Nature (full)

The rain starts, beating my face. Then I look at the sky, in the dark night, with its shiny stars,lost amidst the city lights...​

 

Natural phenomena: We name our children after them. We invoke them to express our emotions and actions. We also use them to set the ambiance in our writings and to transfer the feelings of our protagonists. We breathe in and out the air, and we write. We write withnature...​

 

In the third session of our writing workshop, we will explore the role nature plays in fostering creativity, remembering Whitman, Rilke, and Hugo—the poets whose verses pay tribute to nature. We will also examine the ways natural events are portrayed in literature and discuss whether fiction writing can help raise awareness about environmental issues.

 

For sure, we won’t forget to write our own short pieces, guided by crafted prompts and inspired by nature!

 

Second workshop / March, 5th - ...We Write (in) Silence... (full)

The night descends and the howls of the dogs rise behind the forest in fog; I touch the worn-out keys of the typewriter. I hear... every single stroke of the ancient clock resounds in myheart.

* What is silence? How do we define it? What are its implications for an author?
* How can we read the silence on pages? What happens when a text refuses to narrate?

* What are the functions of the veiled words? Can they help to write the unspeakable?

 

Exploring such questions, in the second session of our writing workshop, we’ll discuss the solitary dimension of the act of writing and experiment with the role of silence as a narrative technique. In this context, we’ll reference the concept of écriture féminine and its implications for creative writing.

 

The session will also include writing prompts to inspire short passages, followed by writing exercises.

 

First workshop / February, 5th - Shout your Voice to Write! (full)

Imagine you’re in a bookstore, and a strange wind sweeps only the cover pages of all thebooks of the earth. You can no longer tell which book is written by whom, yet I bet that, assuper book dragons, you will be able to guess some of the authors—like Dostoyevsky, Kleist,or Proust—based on the echo of their voices between the lines on the faded pages.

 

This makes it inevitable to ask:

* What makes an author’s voice strong and unique?

* How can we discover and strengthen our own writing voices?

* Does the form we write in—prose or poetry—influence our voices, or vice versa?In the first session of our writing workshop, we’ll explore these questions to understand the magic behind the concept of the Voice—the key element that makes our writings unique and memorable.

 

The session will include writing prompts to inspire short passages, followed by exercises to help us find and reinforce our own voices.