749 Best Writing Classes in 2026

Washington University in St. Louis offers a two-year MFA in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, admitting 15 students a year. All new students receive a complete tuition waiver plus a stipend.

A two-day online event focused on getting published, with sessions on pitching, publishing avenues, and storytelling techniques. Includes personal critiques and optional one-on-one meetings with agents.

Weekly work-in-progress group at Emmanuel Church on Barlow Moor Road in Didsbury, Tuesdays 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Your first session is free, after which it is GBP 2.50 to cover the room hire and a coffee halfway through. Each week around six members read out what they have been working on for the rest of the group to comment on and question, with a different six the following week. The stated focus is getting published, so a typical evening might cover characterisation and dialogue one week and how to get a literary agent's attention the next. Mostly novels in progress, with short stories, poetry, memoir, science fiction, horror, children's fiction and the occasional play script. Contact them before turning up - there is sometimes a waiting list.

One hour of prompted writing led by poet Rachael Hill, on the last Wednesday of the month in Manchester's Northern Quarter, GBP 5. It runs immediately before The Space Poetic's open mic, so you can read what you have just written on stage afterwards or simply leave - there is no pressure either way. Hill brings poems she loves plus prompts, and you are equally welcome to bring a project already underway. Up to 40 people; dates run 30 September, 28 October and 25 November.

Monthly morning group at Withington Library, last Friday of the month at 10.30am, GBP 1 a session. Each meeting takes a theme - the group's example is 'write about what you know' - discusses it, then members read out work they have brought. Members are working on short stories, poetry and novels, and the group says it welcomes life writing, children's writing and articles too. Two things to know before booking: it runs through U3A, so you need to be a member, and U3A is aimed at people no longer in full-time work.

Free weekly workshop in Room 3.09 above the Manchester Poetry Library, Wednesdays 6.30pm to 8.30pm, run by Cultureword, which has been developing Black and Asian writers in Manchester and the north for over three decades. Open to Global Majority writers - African, Caribbean, South, Southeast and East Asian, Middle Eastern diaspora and Indigenous communities. These are proper critique sessions rather than drop-in writing time: you bring your own poem, story, novel extract or memoir, and there is a stated expectation that you both give and receive constructive feedback and return with revised work. Spoken word poetry and short fiction are the group's strongest suits. Join by emailing admin@cultureword.org.uk.

Free two-hour session at the Howson Branch library on Exposition Boulevard, 1pm to 3pm, led by author and writing coach Rosa Latimer. It runs monthly on a Monday afternoon and is open to adults at any level with no booking required. Be aware of the format before you go: this is a facilitated writing group rather than a taught course with a fixed syllabus - the group decides the direction of each session together, so you are expected to contribute rather than sit and take notes.

Three-hour Saturday afternoon class at the Munday Library on the St Edward's University campus in south Austin, 1pm to 4pm, $135 for non-members and $75 for Writers' League of Texas members. Taught by Bianca Alyssa Perez, winner of Hub City Press's 2026 Deep Line Poetry Prize. It uses the serpent as a working metaphor for memory and renewal, with generative prompts drawing on family history, cultural memory and fragmented or multilingual language - aimed at poets who want to move past autobiography. The class is explicitly not recorded and not made available online. Five scholarship seats are free of charge, two of them reserved for St Edward's students. Parking on site costs $6 a day, and registration closes at 5pm on 18 September.

One-day Saturday course at City Lit, Keeley Street, Covent Garden, 10.30am to 4.30pm, with children's author Andrew Weale. GBP 79 full fee, GBP 51 concession. For adults who want to write for children: plot, characterisation and viewpoint, plus an orientation to how children's publishing currently works. Booking is already open.

One-day Saturday poetry course, 10.30am to 5pm, GBP 139. Unlike City Academy's other writing courses it runs at Photoion Studio in Waterloo rather than their Farringdon studios. Taught by City Academy's writing tutors rather than a single named instructor, and capped as a one-day intensive so you leave with drafted work rather than notes.

Single-day in-person workshop at the Rozelle campus, 2A Gordon St, on Saturday 19 September, 10am to 4pm, with Elizabeth Gascoigne Rosa. Fee $202 AUD including GST - the cheapest taught creative writing day currently running in Sydney. The focus is the short true story: essay-length non-fiction rather than a book-length project. This is the only session the college has scheduled for this course, so there is no later date to fall back on.

Single-day in-person workshop at Sydney Community College's Rozelle campus, 2A Gordon St, on Friday 6 November, 9am to 3pm. Fee $263 AUD including GST. Taught by Gabiann Marin, a script and story-writing consultant and lecturer with a professional writing degree and honours in film and television production. Six hours in one sitting, so you get a whole day on your own life material rather than a weekly commitment. Places were available at the time of listing, and the college gives 15 per cent off if you book two or more writing courses together.