About

About Perdu’s Writing Workshops

Learning is deeply rooted in Perdu’s mission. Not in the same way as in formal education where the individual learns the knowledge and skills that will allow them to discipline themselves into a member of society. At Perdu, learning is much more speculative; it is about jointly exploring possibilities of being in the world. This is often done through art (poetry) and experimentation.

Participating in Perdu’s writing workshops does not mean completing a trajectory as such, but more about setting up a writing project, regularly exchanging thoughts with others, or discovering in a playful way who you can be as a writer. It may also mean changing roles, so sometimes you guide others’ learning and sometimes you learn yourself.

The Perdu writing workshops are intended for ambitious authors who are at the beginning of their writing career. As a participant, you write prose, poetry and essays, read each other’s work and discuss literary texts. The workshop is not set up as a course: as participants you gradually determine together what your group will read and work on. Your own input therefore largely determines what is learned. Often, workshop participants have gone on to become published writers, joined Perdu’s program team, or have had a great trajectory in the literary, artistic, and cultural sector.

[CLOSED] Season 2023/4

In the new cultural season, Perdu would like to give ambitious, starting writers the opportunity to develop further. From October 2023 there will be biweekly writing workshops in which a total of 16 writers, divided into two groups, will be given the opportunity to develop their skills together with other aspiring authors.

The workshops take place once every two weeks. The meetings usually consist of discussing a reading and writing assignment (the reading and writing itself takes place at home). The reading work is diverse and related to the writing assignments. During the workshop there will be more and more room for the participants’ own input in the selection of the reading material and the formulation of the assignments. When providing feedback on the assignments, the supervisors ensure that there is room for different perspectives and that the participants approach each other’s work both critically and respectfully.

The group led by poet and writer Hannah van Binsbergen will start on Saturday morning on October 7 (11 am – 2 pm) and the group led by writer, poet, critic and editor Jeroen van Rooij will take place on Wednesday evenings, starting October 11 (7:30 pm – 10:30 pm). The groups will meet once every two weeks until the end of June 2024 and take place in Perdu’s theater hall. There is a reading and writing assignment for each meeting.

Practical information

You can register for the workshop until September 9, 2023 via perduschrijfworkshop@gmail.com .

There is a pre-selection, based on a short motivation letter (max 1 A4 page) and a few pages of recent written work that you can send via email. Towards the end of September, you will receive a message regarding the outcome of the selection procedure. We look forward to your application!

The working language of the writing workshops is Dutch, but work in English is accepted if you can give feedback on the work of your fellow participants in Dutch.

Prices: