International Writers' Collective - Sarphatistraat 213-4

Our Story

We've been teaching fiction and poetry workshops in Amsterdam since 2011. We formed the International Writers’ Collective in early 2017 to provide people with the skills, inspiration and community they need to write well and joyfully.

We offer fiction and poetry workshops throughout the year in Amsterdam, The Hague and on-line and a vibrant international community to support you in your writing goals. You can move through four levels of instruction. Many of our students view our programme as a cheaper and more flexible alternative to an MFA.

Private coaching is also available for adults and teens. From time to time, we organise writing retreats and specialised classes addressing a specific skill set or genre. And, because we know how important community is for writers, we regularly offer opportunities for writers to get together for drinks, a communal writing evening or a reading.

Our teachers

Many writing programmes are founded on the principle that great writers automatically make great teachers, and in our experience this is often not the case. We select our teachers based on their ability to:

• • Quickly get to the heart of what's working and what's not working in a writer's piece and articulate suggestions in a clear, positive way that helps the writer move forward;
• • Inspire and engage students in learning the skills and techniques that will take their writing to the next level; and
• • Create a safe, nurturing and fun atmosphere in the workshop.

Most of our teachers have relevant advanced degrees and all undergo rigorous training, including on-going quarterly teaching workshops.

Our students

We've had students from over 30 different countries and every continent except Antarctica. They've ranged in age from 22 years old to 70 years young. Some had very little writing experience when they came to us. Some had already published their first novel.

As one of our students put it: 'The International Writers' Collective is more than just a workshop. It's a community. A group of people of all ages, from all over the world, with different backgrounds and various professional occupations who have one thing in common: we want to write.'

We hope you can join us.

The International Writers' Collective is registered in The Netherlands and operates under Dutch commercial law. We are a certified and audited Dutch educational institution and are officially listed at CRKBO. Our registration number with the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce is 34235666. Due to our certification, we are sales tax exempt so our standard courses do not have a BTW/VAT tax.