The South London Writing School launched in December 2025, presents a series of creative writing courses and Sunday Masterclasses housed in our very own events space at  Bookseller Crow bookshop. Founded by the author and performer Karen McLeod, the programme offers  in person creative writing courses at the bookstore in Crystal Palace, south London, tutored by published writers, performers and industry professionals.

This comes as a response to the need for in-person creative writing courses, south of the river, and an antidote to the data-driven digital age. Through writing, experimentation and the love of books, the South London Writing School will nurture creativity while emphasising the power that comes from a writing community. It launches on 27th January 2026 with a six-week Fiction Writing course led by McLeod (see below). In February, a series of monthly Masterclass Sundays will start, introducing industry professionals leading workshops themed around their area of expertise.

Creative Writing: Fiction from life with Karen McLeod

Tuesday 27th January – 3rd March, 7.30 – 9.30pm (six evenings)

This six week creative writing course is led by award-winning author and performer Karen McLeod. Weekly sessions provide the structure to help you start writing and find what it is you want to write. Karen introduces the importance of craft, while equally encouraging experimentation to discover your writing voice and see the world as a major source of inspiration. More details and BOOK HERE 

The course is held within the events space of The Bookseller Crow bookshop in south east London and takes place on Tuesday evenings over six consecutive weeks from 27th January – 3rd March 2026, 7.30 pm – 9.30pm. The content has been developed for beginners, as well as creatives who have lost their mojo, or writers in need of motivation and confidence. Places are offered on a first come, first served basis with a maximum of thirteen students in each class. The total cost is £249 and is suitable for over 18s.

COURSE STRUCTURE:
Each week your writing tutor will introduce a specific aspect of creative writing alongside writing exercises each week during the workshop. As well as this, there will be weekly explorative ‘creative assignments’ to be completed outside of class. Writers should put aside a minimum of three hours per week to complete these. During the six weeks the following areas of creative writing will be introduced:

• Using our stories, place and time to inspire fiction
• Points of view – who is telling your story?
• Building believable characters/method writing
• Story structure/shape
• Dialogue
• Final week – a reading and feedback party

In honour of Jonathan Main, our bookseller at Bookseller Crow who sadly died in September, we are offering one free scholarship place for someone who would be unable to attend due to financial constraints. This is aimed at the unemployed, the unwaged carers or those on a low income. To apply for this scholarship please do not book below and instead send your details, including a short description of your circumstances, including where you live, with SCHOLARSHIP in the email title to: scribblingcrow[at]hotmail.com The deadline for scholarship applications is 6pm, Monday 22nd December 2025. Applications sent after this deadline cannot be considered.

To ask a question about the writing course email the team at: sc************@*****il.com 

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Participant feedback

“The main thing I wanted to say was ‘thank you’. When I took your course, I had a real case of lost mojo. I found you properly inspiring and your approach to life writing really helped me reconnect with myself. The book I’m working on had its genesis in your class so you had a very real impact.”

“I got exactly what I wanted and needed on your course! I was looking for ways to access writing that felt all locked up inside of me and I didn’t want to ‘learn to write like everyone else’… Thank you for an absolutely fantastic course.”

“I loved the course – it knocked me off my normal pattern of thinking and got me to try new things! Also I got some really useful feedback.”

Your creative writing tutor Karen McLeod
Karen McLeod is a prize-winning author In Search Of The Missing Eyelash and performer of comic poet Barbara Brownskirt. She holds an MA in Creative Life Writing from Goldsmiths University and is Bookseller Crow’s writer-in-residence and literary events co-ordinator. Her memoir on flying as cabin crew, Lifting Off, was published in 2024. For twelve years Karen worked for British Airways as cabin crew and it was this experience which sent her into freefall, and years later became the subject and ‘container’ for Lifting Off.

For the last thirteen years she has run creative writing courses within the bookshop. These workshops have proved hugely popular and are often fully booked. The formats works both creatively and for the community, linking together creatives from Crystal Palace, South-East London and beyond. Karen also teaches for the National Writing Centre, Norwich and the Arvon Foundation.

Those attending have gone on to write successful TV dramas, radio plays, poetry, novels and performance. In 2019 Kate Davies had her debut novel published, In At The Deep End by Borough Press and in 2020 it won the Polari prize. Fiona Keating’s novel Smoke and Silk will be published by Headline Books in 2025. Many writers attending the classes form strong friendships and continue to meet up in their own writing groups.

See Karen’s website www.karenmcleod.co.uk