I have taught creative writing for over fifteen years, alongside fiction-writing. I have created and led workshops/courses for a range of literature organisations spanning the UK, Berlin, and Hong Kong. These include the Hong Kong Literature festival, Writing East Midlands, The Reader Berlin, The Word Factory, CommonWord, Spread The Word, and more. Courses I’ve created and run include The Art of Short Fiction, New Fiction By Women and Non-Binary Authors: A Reading Series, Flash Fiction Factory, Beginning To Write, Writing Fiction, and more.
As a graduate of English Studies with an MA and MPhil, I have also taught Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and Critical Thinking at undergraduate level to students at the University of Hong Kong.
I am available for bookings/discussions for your organisation, so feel free to drop me a line if you’re interested in what I can offer.
Below is an example call for the Book Club/Reading Series I created, curated, and led for The Reader Berlin. It was called ‘New Fiction By Women and Non-Binary BIPOC Authors’ and I wrote about my experience creating and running it for Wasafiri Magazine, in partnership with award-winning author/illustration Rowan Hisayo Buchanan who was the Artist in Residence during the course. (See the article link for my words and Rowan’s joyful illustrations.)
New Fiction By Women & Non-Binary BIPOC Authors - A Reading Series/Book Club I devised and ran for 4 consecutive years, during the pandemic and beyond. (See here for course testimonials.)
Photo by Jan Radtke
READERS!
I’m delighted to be hosting a summer reading series with The Reader Berlin. We’ll be discussing novels and novellas – from debuts to established voices. We’ll look at issues of craft, style, language, authorship, as well as the politics of reading in our times, including questions of methodology and canonization. Participants will meet online once every fortnight to discuss texts. They will be supported throughout the experience by an online Slack forum and a Zoom Meet Up, which I’ll be hosting, curating, and moderating. If you can’t join the course, you are warmly invited to read along with us anyway! I am organizing bursary spots fo BIPOC/non-binary POC writers/readers and/or anyone who is financially constrained.
*If you’re not sure you fit the criteria for a bursary, please be in touch.
The Reading List includes works by the following selected authors: Akwaeke Emezi, Hanya Yanagihara, Diane Evans, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Meena Kandasamy, Sayaka Murata, Leila Slimani, and Celeste Ng.
Be in touch via divyaghelani@gmail.com or hello@thereaderberlin.com
Learning to de-canon, to unravel, to un-do, to reconsider, to make and dismantle … to raise awareness and to read in ways that are full of possibility …
Reading stories by Women & Non-Binary POC with critical care. To read with a consideration of craft, the politics that shaped these texts and now surrounds them, attention to style, language, voice, point of view, and more. An intimate online reading space that is carefully moderated to create an inclusive and joyful environment.