Geneva Writers Group upcoming events

Fundamentals of Writing (22 Apr 2026)

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Fundamentals of Writing:

A 6 Month Virtual Workshop with Zoë Wells

Based on university-level writing courses in the US and UK, this Fundamentals of Writing series offers a step-by-step introduction to writing theory. By breaking a story down into its essential components, we’ll demystify what makes “good” writing and learn how to craft cohesive, creative, and impactful work with consistency.

The course consists of twelve sessions—six theory-based and six practical—and you are welcome to attend as many as you wish.

Consider this your Writing 101.

THEORY Session 1: Plot Arcs and Structures – Beginnings, Changes, and Resolutions

14/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Stories are defined by movement — but how does plot actually work?

In this session, we explore major plot frameworks, from the classic three-act structure to the seven basic plots, and examine how these patterns shape literary fiction, suspense, and everything in between. By understanding how stories move, you’ll learn what your own plots can teach you about your writing.

Texts discussed: Raymond Carver, Neighbours • Shirley Jackson, The Lottery • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

PRACTICE Session 1: Practical Writing – Plots and Changemakers

28/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

This hands-on session focuses on change, the engine of every plot. Through guided exercises, you’ll experiment with how shifts, reversals, and choices alter the direction and emotional impact of a story — and how to avoid predictable plotlines while strengthening narrative momentum.

THEORY Session 2: Character and POV – Motivation, Voice, and Narrative Style

11/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

A story without a voice is a story untold. This session examines how point of view shapes narrative meaning, tone, and emotional impact. We’ll look at the purposes different narrators serve and how selecting (or crafting) a voice becomes one of the most powerful artistic decisions a writer makes.

Texts discussed: Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch • Helen Oyeyemi, Books and Roses • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

PRACTICE Session 2: Practical Writing – Playing with Point of View

25/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

What happens when you change the storyteller? In this session, we experiment with shifting narrators and angles of perspective. You’ll discover how POV alters tension, intimacy, and meaning while uncovering new possibilities within your own stories.

THEORY Session 3: Dialogue – Natural Tones and Unnatural Voices

11/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Dialogue is deceptively difficult: seamless when done well, disruptive when done poorly. This session breaks down what makes dialogue effective, when to use it, and how it shapes character, pacing, and story dynamics. We’ll analyse examples that reveal how dialogue can quietly transform a narrative.

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place • Lawrence Hill, So What Are You, Anyway? • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

PRACTICE Session 3: Practical Writing – Talking Our Way Through Dialogue

25/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Through targeted exercises, we’ll practice crafting dialogue that carries emotion, reveals character, and controls narrative rhythm. This session focuses on balancing believability with intention, sharpening your ear for voices that elevate your fiction.

THEORY Session 4: Setting – Believability, Detail, and Beauty

08/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

As Carmen Maria Machado notes, “Places are never just places.” In this session, we explore how setting functions as mood, metaphor, context, and even catalyst. By analysing vivid fictional worlds, we’ll consider how to make our own settings feel alive and indispensable.

Texts discussed: Julia Armfield, The Great Awake • Ross Raisin, Ghost Kitchen • Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

PRACTICE Session 4: Practical Writing – Setting

22/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Using guided prompts, we’ll experiment with different approaches to creating effective settings — from atmospheric landscapes to dynamic urban scenes. Learn how world-building (even in realism) influences tone, character, and narrative energy.

THEORY Session 5: Detail – When to Show and When to Tell

06/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

“Show, don’t tell” is one of writing’s most repeated rules — but also one of its most misunderstood. This session examines when showing is essential, when telling is more efficient, and how detail functions in stylistic and structural terms. We’ll analyse sparse and lush prose to understand both ends of the spectrum.

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants • Anton Chekhov, The Student • Cormac McCarthy, The Road

PRACTICE Session 5: Practical Writing – Show Don’t Tell

20/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Through writing exercises, we’ll test different levels of detail and explore how much information a story truly needs. This session helps you refine your stylistic preferences, sharpen your descriptive instincts, and cultivate a voice that feels confident and intentional.

THEORY Session 6: Narrative Reliability – The Known and the Unknown in Writing

03/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

The space between what a story tells and what a reader understands is where literature becomes most alive. This session explores reliable and unreliable narration as tools for complexity, tension, and depth. We’ll analyse how writers manipulate truth and ambiguity to shape interpretation.

Texts discussed: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper • Claire Vaye Watkins, Ghosts, Cowboys • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

PRACTICE Session 6: Practical Writing – Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

17/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

How much does your narrator reveal — or conceal? In this session, we’ll experiment with varying degrees of narrative reliability to see how trust, withholding, and perspective reshape a story. Learn to use unreliability not as confusion, but as craft.

Fundamentals of Writing Pricing

Sliding-Scale Member Rates

GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.

Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.

Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 450

Member – Standard: CHF 340

Member – Accessible: CHF 280

Non-Member: CHF 480

Two-Session Package: Members CHF 60 · Non-Members CHF 80

Zoë Wells is a short story writer and novelist. She has spent a decade working in literary magazines in the UK as a reader, editor, and contributor, for publications including Poetry Wales and Bandit Fiction. Her own short stories have been longlisted for prizes including the BBC National Short Story Award, the White Review Short Story Prize, and the Bridport. Her writing has been featured in the anthologies Night-Time Stories (Emma Press), IX: The 2021 Manchester Anthology (Centre for New Writing), and Reclaim: An Anthology of Women’s Lives (Bandit).

Fantastik Ekphrastik GWG Social: Mixing Art with Writing (23 Apr 2026)

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Fantastik Ekphrastik GWG Social:
Mixing Art with Writing

In-Person GWG Evening Mixing Art with Writing

The GWG community is hosting a unique event combining art with writing. In the spirit of ekphrastic writing, 6 artists will show their art at Flanagans Pub to inspire writers to produce poetry or flash fiction.

(Ekphrastic verses are written in response to a work of art. Writers engage with visual art through language, exploring themes, meanings, or imagined stories.)

This is a social event where the worlds of creativity can mix and mingle.

Join us for an evening of socializing, writing prompts, and sharing!

This event is free, but please buy a drink to thank the establishment for the use of its space.

*The first drink will be offered by GWG for any of its Members who register on our website before 19 April.*

Five Approaches to Flash Fiction with Kathy Fish (02 May 2026)

Sat, 02 May 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Five Approaches to Flash Fiction

(and Why You Should Try Them All)

In Person Workshop with Kathy Fish

Whatever story you're burning to tell, there's a flash fiction form perfectly suited for it. In this hands-on workshop, flash fiction master Kathy Fish will explore five distinct approaches: the breathless single-paragraph rush, the fragmented mosaic, the playful hermit crab, the poetic use of repetition, and the distilled power of microfiction. Through published examples and guided writing exercises, you'll discover how form can serve your story's emotional urgency, pacing, and intent. Come ready to write, experiment, and find new ways into your shortest work.

Saturday, May 2, 10:00 – 12:30 (Geneva)

Workshop Fees: CHF 50 (Members) | CHF 70 (Non-Members)

Kathy Fish’s short stories, flash fiction, and prose poems have recently appeared in Ploughshares, Washington Square Review, Waxwing Magazine, Copper Nickel, the Norton Reader, and Best Small Fictions. Her fifth collection, Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018, is now in its third print run with Matter Press. She is a recipient of the Copper Nickel Editor’s Prize. Her highly sought after flash fiction workshops, begun in 2015, have resulted in numerous publications and awards for the hundreds of writers who have taken part. Her work has been generously supported by the Ragdale Foundation and the Kerouac Project of Orlando. She publishes a bestselling newsletter, The Art of Flash Fiction, named one of the twenty best writing Substacks by Writers at Work. Other stories have appeared in Electric Literature, Wigleaf, Guernica, Denver Quarterly, Mississippi Review (online), Yemasseee Review, Indiana Review, Spork, Slice, New South, Newfound Journal and various other journals, textbooks, and anthologies.

Fundamentals of Writing (06 May 2026)

Wed, 06 May 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Fundamentals of Writing:

A 6 Month Virtual Workshop with Zoë Wells

The course consists of twelve sessions—six theory-based and six practical—and you are welcome to attend as many as you wish.

Consider this your Writing 101.

THEORY Session 1: Plot Arcs and Structures – Beginnings, Changes, and Resolutions

14/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Stories are defined by movement — but how does plot actually work?

Texts discussed: Raymond Carver, Neighbours • Shirley Jackson, The Lottery • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

PRACTICE Session 1: Practical Writing – Plots and Changemakers

28/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 2: Character and POV – Motivation, Voice, and Narrative Style

11/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch • Helen Oyeyemi, Books and Roses • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

PRACTICE Session 2: Practical Writing – Playing with Point of View

25/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 3: Dialogue – Natural Tones and Unnatural Voices

11/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place • Lawrence Hill, So What Are You, Anyway? • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

PRACTICE Session 3: Practical Writing – Talking Our Way Through Dialogue

25/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 4: Setting – Believability, Detail, and Beauty

08/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Julia Armfield, The Great Awake • Ross Raisin, Ghost Kitchen • Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

PRACTICE Session 4: Practical Writing – Setting

22/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 5: Detail – When to Show and When to Tell

06/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants • Anton Chekhov, The Student • Cormac McCarthy, The Road

PRACTICE Session 5: Practical Writing – Show Don’t Tell

20/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 6: Narrative Reliability – The Known and the Unknown in Writing

03/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper • Claire Vaye Watkins, Ghosts, Cowboys • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

PRACTICE Session 6: Practical Writing – Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

17/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Fundamentals of Writing Pricing

Sliding-Scale Member Rates

GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.

Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.

Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 450

Member – Standard: CHF 340

Member – Accessible: CHF 280

Non-Member: CHF 480

Two-Session Package: Members CHF 60 · Non-Members CHF 80

Online Meet-up for GWG Members in German-speaking Cantons (07 May 2026)

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Online Meet-up for GWG Members in German-Speaking Cantons

Online

At our Writers’ Conference in November, Valeria Vescina offered to organise regular meetings for writers who reside in cantons distant from Geneva and who therefore can’t easily attend events there.

The next online sessions will be on Wednesday 1 April and Thursday 7 May.

She is also organizing in-person sessions on Sunday 8 March in Zurich from 11:00 to 16:00 and Sunday 7 June (place tbd – likely Basel, Bern or Lucerne).

Dates for the second half of the year will be announced in due course.

Thank you to Valeria for her proactivity in building community!

When? Wednesday 1 April, Thursday 7 May at 20:00

Where? Online

FOR GWG MEMBERS ONLY!

Cost: Free

Who is the leader?

Valeria Vescina is an author, reviewer and creative-writing tutor. from Puglia (Italy). She was educated in Switzerland and the UK, and lived in London most of her life, before settling back in Switzerland.

After a successful career in management, she gained an MA in Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Her first novel, "That Summer in Puglia" (Eyewear Publishing), was launched at the FTWeekend Oxford Literary Festival 2018 and has had three print runs. She has just finished my second book, "Habit of Disobedience", a tale inspired by real-life events in sixteenth-century Southern Italy. Her short story "Pianissimo" appearead on the Royal Philharmonic Society’s website; "The Bonfire" was the runner-up in a Cazart flash fiction competition; "Accidental Musicians" featured at The Vortex’s ‘Words & Jazz’.

She also organizes writing retreats in the Bernese Oberland.

Snippets - MAY (12 May 2026)

Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Snippets

Monthly in-person writing sessions

Get your writing juices flowing!

Creative, themed writing sessions to inspire you for your current project or for a new one, while connecting with local creative writers. We will produce 3-4 snippets of writing from prompts to put our creative minds to work. We will share our creations, either by describing them or reading them out.

When? The second or third Tuesday of each month; 10-11.30

Where? Pages and Sips in the old town, Grand-Rue 37, 1204 Genève

FOR GWG MEMBERS ONLY!

Cost: 10 chf, and support our host Pages & Sips by purchasing something (coffee, tea, croissant...)

Who is the leader?

Carol Waites has been a professional writing trainer and coach for 25 years, more recently immersing herself in creative writing. She loves sharing ideas and seeing others’ creative talents unfold. She also loves networking with other like-minded people from different backgrounds. She is now writing her memoir of her time at the United Nations.

Writing to Change the World: A Virtual Workshop with Yun Wei (19 May 2026)

Tue, 19 May 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Writing to Change the World

A Virtual Cross-Genre Workshop with Yun Wei

There are few more private acts than writing, yet activism is a public one. How can we use the power of writing to enact change in the world? How can individual writing lead to community? How can your truth be written to awaken, unsettle and start a movement? Adrienne Rich called poetry “the liquid voice that can wear through stone.” We will study the work of John Green, George Orwell and others who did not hesitate to use their liquid voices to change minds. Writing exercises will put their techniques into practice. This is a cross-genre workshop for poetry and prose writers of all levels.

May 19, 19:00 – 20:30 (Geneva)

Workshop Fees: CHF 30 (Members) | CHF 45 (Non-Members)

Bio: Yun Wei received her MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College and studied at Georgetown University and London School of Economics. She is a recipient of the Veasna So Fiction Scholarship, Boulevard Poetry Contest and Geneva Literary Prizes. Her poetry and fiction appear in over 15 journals, including Adroit, Poetry Daily, Michigan Quarterly and Wigleaf. She organizes Zurich Spoken Word, a monthly open mic. She works in global health in Switzerland, where she relies on chocolate and tears to survive mountain sports. Find her: @thepomegranatewei on IG / yunweiwriter@gmail.com / pomegranateway.blogspot.com

Fundamentals of Writing (20 May 2026)

Wed, 20 May 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Fundamentals of Writing:

A 6 Month Virtual Workshop with Zoë Wells

The course consists of twelve sessions—six theory-based and six practical—and you are welcome to attend as many as you wish.

Consider this your Writing 101.

THEORY Session 1: Plot Arcs and Structures – Beginnings, Changes, and Resolutions

14/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Stories are defined by movement — but how does plot actually work?

Texts discussed: Raymond Carver, Neighbours • Shirley Jackson, The Lottery • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

PRACTICE Session 1: Practical Writing – Plots and Changemakers

28/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 2: Character and POV – Motivation, Voice, and Narrative Style

11/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch • Helen Oyeyemi, Books and Roses • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

PRACTICE Session 2: Practical Writing – Playing with Point of View

25/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 3: Dialogue – Natural Tones and Unnatural Voices

11/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place • Lawrence Hill, So What Are You, Anyway? • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

PRACTICE Session 3: Practical Writing – Talking Our Way Through Dialogue

25/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 4: Setting – Believability, Detail, and Beauty

08/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Julia Armfield, The Great Awake • Ross Raisin, Ghost Kitchen • Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

PRACTICE Session 4: Practical Writing – Setting

22/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 5: Detail – When to Show and When to Tell

06/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants • Anton Chekhov, The Student • Cormac McCarthy, The Road

PRACTICE Session 5: Practical Writing – Show Don’t Tell

20/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 6: Narrative Reliability – The Known and the Unknown in Writing

03/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper • Claire Vaye Watkins, Ghosts, Cowboys • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

PRACTICE Session 6: Practical Writing – Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

17/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Fundamentals of Writing Pricing

Sliding-Scale Member Rates

GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.

Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.

Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 450

Member – Standard: CHF 340

Member – Accessible: CHF 280

Non-Member: CHF 480

Two-Session Package: Members CHF 60 · Non-Members CHF 80

Fundamentals of Writing (03 Jun 2026)

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Fundamentals of Writing:

A 6 Month Virtual Workshop with Zoë Wells

The course consists of twelve sessions—six theory-based and six practical—and you are welcome to attend as many as you wish.

Consider this your Writing 101.

THEORY Session 1: Plot Arcs and Structures – Beginnings, Changes, and Resolutions

14/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Stories are defined by movement — but how does plot actually work?

Texts discussed: Raymond Carver, Neighbours • Shirley Jackson, The Lottery • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

PRACTICE Session 1: Practical Writing – Plots and Changemakers

28/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 2: Character and POV – Motivation, Voice, and Narrative Style

11/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch • Helen Oyeyemi, Books and Roses • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

PRACTICE Session 2: Practical Writing – Playing with Point of View

25/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 3: Dialogue – Natural Tones and Unnatural Voices

11/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place • Lawrence Hill, So What Are You, Anyway? • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

PRACTICE Session 3: Practical Writing – Talking Our Way Through Dialogue

25/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 4: Setting – Believability, Detail, and Beauty

08/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Julia Armfield, The Great Awake • Ross Raisin, Ghost Kitchen • Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

PRACTICE Session 4: Practical Writing – Setting

22/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 5: Detail – When to Show and When to Tell

06/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants • Anton Chekhov, The Student • Cormac McCarthy, The Road

PRACTICE Session 5: Practical Writing – Show Don’t Tell

20/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 6: Narrative Reliability – The Known and the Unknown in Writing

03/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper • Claire Vaye Watkins, Ghosts, Cowboys • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

PRACTICE Session 6: Practical Writing – Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

17/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Fundamentals of Writing Pricing

Sliding-Scale Member Rates

GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.

Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.

Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 450

Member – Standard: CHF 340

Member – Accessible: CHF 280

Non-Member: CHF 480

Two-Session Package: Members CHF 60 · Non-Members CHF 80

In-person Meet-up for GWG Members in German-speaking Cantons (07 Jun 2026)

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Meet-up for GWG Members in German-Speaking Cantons

In-Person

At our Writers’ Conference in November, Valeria Vescina offered to organise regular meetings for writers who reside in cantons distant from Geneva and who therefore can’t easily attend events there.
The next in-person sessions will take place on Sunday 8 March in Zurich from 11:00 to 16:00. This session is full but there will be another opportunity on Sunday 7 June 11h-16h (place tbd – likely Basel, Bern or Lucerne).

The cost of the event is TBD and will be announced closer to the date.

She is also organizing online sessions, with the next ones on Wednesday 1 April and Thursday 7 May.

Dates for the second half of the year will be announced in due course.

Thank you to Valeria for her proactivity in building community!

When? Sunday 8 March from 11:00 to 16:00 and Sunday 7 June

Where? Zurich, and TBD

FOR GWG MEMBERS ONLY!

Cost: Free

Who is the leader?

Valeria Vescina is an author, reviewer and creative-writing tutor. from Puglia (Italy). She was educated in Switzerland and the UK, and lived in London most of her life, before settling back in Switzerland.

After a successful career in management, she gained an MA in Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Her first novel, "That Summer in Puglia" (Eyewear Publishing), was launched at the FTWeekend Oxford Literary Festival 2018 and has had three print runs. She has just finished my second book, "Habit of Disobedience", a tale inspired by real-life events in sixteenth-century Southern Italy. Her short story "Pianissimo" appearead on the Royal Philharmonic Society’s website; "The Bonfire" was the runner-up in a Cazart flash fiction competition; "Accidental Musicians" featured at The Vortex’s ‘Words & Jazz’.

She also organizes writing retreats in the Bernese Oberland.

Snippets - JUNE (09 Jun 2026)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Snippets

Monthly in-person writing sessions

Get your writing juices flowing!

Creative, themed writing sessions to inspire you for your current project or for a new one, while connecting with local creative writers. We will produce 3-4 snippets of writing from prompts to put our creative minds to work. We will share our creations, either by describing them or reading them out.

When? The second or third Tuesday of each month; 10-11.30

Where? Pages and Sips in the old town, Grand-Rue 37, 1204 Genève

FOR GWG MEMBERS ONLY!

Cost: 10 chf, and support our host Pages & Sips by purchasing something (coffee, tea, croissant...)

Who is the leader?

Carol Waites has been a professional writing trainer and coach for 25 years, more recently immersing herself in creative writing. She loves sharing ideas and seeing others’ creative talents unfold. She also loves networking with other like-minded people from different backgrounds. She is now writing her memoir of her time at the United Nations.

Fundamentals of Writing (17 Jun 2026)

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Fundamentals of Writing:

A 6 Month Virtual Workshop with Zoë Wells

The course consists of twelve sessions—six theory-based and six practical—and you are welcome to attend as many as you wish.

Consider this your Writing 101.

THEORY Session 1: Plot Arcs and Structures – Beginnings, Changes, and Resolutions

14/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Stories are defined by movement — but how does plot actually work?

Texts discussed: Raymond Carver, Neighbours • Shirley Jackson, The Lottery • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

PRACTICE Session 1: Practical Writing – Plots and Changemakers

28/01/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 2: Character and POV – Motivation, Voice, and Narrative Style

11/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch • Helen Oyeyemi, Books and Roses • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

PRACTICE Session 2: Practical Writing – Playing with Point of View

25/02/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 3: Dialogue – Natural Tones and Unnatural Voices

11/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place • Lawrence Hill, So What Are You, Anyway? • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

PRACTICE Session 3: Practical Writing – Talking Our Way Through Dialogue

25/03/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 4: Setting – Believability, Detail, and Beauty

08/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Julia Armfield, The Great Awake • Ross Raisin, Ghost Kitchen • Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

PRACTICE Session 4: Practical Writing – Setting

22/04/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 5: Detail – When to Show and When to Tell

06/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants • Anton Chekhov, The Student • Cormac McCarthy, The Road

PRACTICE Session 5: Practical Writing – Show Don’t Tell

20/05/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

THEORY Session 6: Narrative Reliability – The Known and the Unknown in Writing

03/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Texts discussed: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper • Claire Vaye Watkins, Ghosts, Cowboys • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

PRACTICE Session 6: Practical Writing – Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

17/06/26 — Wednesday, 19:30–21:30

Fundamentals of Writing Pricing

Sliding-Scale Member Rates

GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.

Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.

Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 450

Member – Standard: CHF 340

Member – Accessible: CHF 280

Non-Member: CHF 480

Two-Session Package: Members CHF 60 · Non-Members CHF 80