The Invisible College

BBC

Lessons in creative writing from a ghostly array of great novelists, poets and playwrights such as Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats and Allen Ginsberg. Presented by Cathy FitzGerald.

  • 9 minutes 13 seconds
    Lesson Eighteen: Writer’s Block

    “You’re in the middle of writing something and your mind goes blank
 ok, you’re being warned, aren’t you?” Discover Ray Bradbury’s simple trick for overcoming writer’s block.

    4 June 2017, 11:20 pm
  • 9 minutes 19 seconds
    Lesson Seventeen: What I Learned from James Baldwin

    Contemporary novelist Caryl Phillips close reads a dramatic passage from ‘Another Country’ by James Baldwin to see what we can learn from the great American writer.

    4 June 2017, 11:10 pm
  • 10 minutes 9 seconds
    Lesson Sixteen: Dealing with Critics

    If you’re going to put your work out in the world, then sooner or later, someone’s going to take a pop at it. This lesson features tips on handling critics from novelists John Fowles and Graham Greene, plus some unexpected behaviour from Henry James.

    4 June 2017, 11:00 pm
  • 10 minutes 19 seconds
    Lesson Fifteen: Write and Repeat

    “Easy reading is damned hard writing,” says Maya Angelou. Hear the many pains she takes to ‘sharpen her language’ in this lesson about revising your work.

    28 May 2017, 11:20 pm
  • 8 minutes 23 seconds
    Lesson Fourteen: In Search of a Character with Graham Greene

    Hear how Graham Greene gradually evolves a character – and a novel - on a research trip to a leper colony in the Congo.

    28 May 2017, 11:10 pm
  • 10 minutes 20 seconds
    Lesson Thirteen: Place

    Sometimes the world gives writers a location so atmospheric it’s just waiting for a back story. But how do we do it justice? Poet Ted Hughes, diarist Christopher Isherwood and Vladimir Nabokov on capturing the soul of a place in words.

    28 May 2017, 11:00 pm
  • 9 minutes 44 seconds
    Lesson Twelve: A Workshop with Allen Ginsberg

    How often do you get the chance to attend a lecture by one of the Beats? An extraordinary opportunity to spend time with poet Allen Ginsberg, as he explains Jack Kerouac’s theory of writing.

    22 May 2017, 12:50 am
  • 8 minutes 30 seconds
    Lesson Eleven: Listen Up!

    If you want to write good dialogue, you need good ears. Listen to all the little idiosyncrasies of an individual voice: the cadences, elisions, flourishes. With an extended reading from short-story writer and poet, Grace Paley.

    22 May 2017, 12:40 am
  • 10 minutes 35 seconds
    Lesson Ten: Find your Story

    Waiting for the muse to strike? Give it up and get writing. Here are five creation stories from the archives to inspire you, from novelists Beryl Bainbridge, John Fowles, Daphne du Maurier, Roald Dahl and Ray Bradbury.

    22 May 2017, 12:30 am
  • 10 minutes 22 seconds
    Lesson Nine: Keep Human

    In praise of day-dreaming, holidays and playing hookey: this lesson exalts the importance of time off. Go to the pub with W.B. Yeats, flit through the airport with Noel Coward, and wander the streets of Paris with Henry Miller.

    22 May 2017, 12:20 am
  • 9 minutes 55 seconds
    Lesson Eight: The Writer’s Mind

    The subconscious mind can be the writer’s greatest helper – or nastiest foe. This lesson considers ways to access its mysterious depths, with archive clips of novelists Doris Lessing and Aldous Huxley and a mesmerising reading of “I’ve Known Rivers” by poet Langston Hughes.

    22 May 2017, 12:10 am
  • More Episodes? Get the App
© MoonFM 2024. All rights reserved.