Guiding you on your writing journey

Writing in English in a sea of Hebrew can feel isolating, with few avenues for honing craft, experimenting with genre, and meeting local writers writing in English. 

​WriteSpace Jerusalem offers community and a wide array of quality writing workshops and master classes showcasing talented writers from Israel and abroad, with a view to nurturing English-language writing in Israel.

Choose areas of interest, from fiction, poetry, memoir and blogging, to build a program tailored to your needs. 

​What would you like to see on offer?
Contact us and we'll try to make it happen.

What people are saying about WriteSpace Jerusalem...

​'I must tell you how excited I am about WriteSpace Jerusalem. I've published before, and have a writing group, but the ongoing support of this diverse writing community is just what I need for my creative/memoir pieces. It's simply wonderful that the English writing voices join together for this.' - R.W.

'​As always, a big thank you to Nadia for facilitating the workshop. Your knack for knowing who and what will motivate writers in formation repeatedly astounds.' - P.T.

Creative Writing Sessions for Teens & Tweens

We've created a program especially for teens and "almost teens". We'll introduce teens to a wide variety of genres and nurture their writing through exposure to talented writers from Israel and abroad.
WriteSpace Jerusalem in the News
There's a great feature about us by Emily Rose in The Times of Israel, November 24, 2016.

There's a wonderful article about us by Natalie Chetboun, entitled, 'A space of one's own" in The Jerusalem Post,  June 17, 2016, ​

Upcoming Master Classes and Workshops

Story Foundations 
Starting October 30 & 31, 2017
(daytime & evening option)

​Focus on Craft (Prose Workshop)
with writers & editors
Batnadiv HaKarmi & Nadia Jacobson

  • Need help pushing your story through from beginning to end? 
  • Break through “writer’s block".
  • Move your story from your imagination onto the page. 
  • Learn how manage the creator and editor sides of your brain. 

​Engage your senses, hone your skills and ​put words on the page in a series of 10 creative writing workshops with fiction writer, Nadia Jacobson, and hybrid & creative non-fiction writer, Batnadiv HaKarmi.​

Writing from the Ordinary
Thursday, November 30, 2017
One-day intensive poetry workshop
with award-winning poet
Jane Medved

Putting It All Together
Thursday, November 16, 2017

One-day masterclass on memoir
with award-winning author & teacher
Ilana Blumberg 

How do we organize our selves? Our past? Our homes? Our hopes? Our friends? Our family?

What patterns can we see and which do we make invisible, as we classify and categorize, tell stories and make lists that offer structure and meaning to the raw materials of our experience? What would less organization or different organization look like?

In this workshop, we will think about organization from a literary/creative point of view through analysis of narratives and guided writing exercises.  

Texts may include selections from Natalia Ginzburg, Ann Patchett, Rebecca Mead, and will be sent to participants two weeks before the seminar. 
You're sitting at your desk, tapping your pen, staring at the blank screen. 

How do you start?
What do you choose to write about?
How do you "find" a poem?

This intensive workshop will focus on writing from the ordinary - using the domestic and natural spaces around us - as well as turning to other poets to be our teachers and guides.  We will do exercises to sharpen our "poetic eye" and examine how others have tackled these questions before us.

Open to writers of all genres who want to explore the practice of poetry.

Past Seminars & Workshops

Shaping Family History into Compelling Stories
Monday, July 6, 2017
One-day seminar
with author & teacher
Annette Gendler 

Do you have a box of old family photographs,
a bundle of family letters, or stacks of family documents that you want to “do something with?”

Based on her experience of writing her memoirJumping Over Shadows, the story of German-Jewish love that overcame the burdens of the past, author Annette Gendler will lead a workshop presenting approaches to creating compelling stories from family history.

Participants are welcome to bring artifacts and projects in progress.

First Impressions:
Opening Your Novel​
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Masterclass
with award-winning author
Jessamyn Hope

What makes a good beginning?

How do you make your book gripping from the first line?

Are you sure you’re starting your story in the right place?
​
​How do you immediately ground a reader in a time and location?

​In this seminar, we will explore what makes a great beginning by reading the openings of critically acclaimed novels, as well as the first ten pages of each other’s novel-in-progress 

Speaking the Unspoken:
Poetry and the Lyric Essay 
Thursday, June 22, 2017
with poets and essayists
Joanna Chen & Jane Medved

From the Concrete to the Sublime 
Revealing the meaning & secrets of your story
April 27, 2017
One-day Personal Essay/Memoir seminar 
with award-winning writer
Sherri Mandell
​How do you give shape to the unknown and the unspoken?  
How do you lead the reader through an invisible moment?

During this intensive workshop, we will examine the power of the "said" and the "unsaid", the direct and the indirect, in poetry and essay. 

We will examine the craft and techniques used in personal essay.  We will then look at examples from poetry.  We will end by merging the two into lyric essay.

Our guides will be contemporary writers working through these black and white spaces. Come with a pen and notebook and be prepared to venture into the unmapped territory of the lyric.​
A one-day workshop in personal essay & memoir writing based on the four levels of hermeneutics of Biblical interpretation, with the acronym of PARDES:
  • pshat (the simple meaning),
  • remez (what it reminds us of),
  • drash (the meaning), and 
  • sod (the secret that waits to be revealed), 

This framework provides a conceptual map for analyzing any experience or encounter. It also provides an excellent structure for thinking about and developing any piece of writing.

Escape into the ​
​Unexpected
April 25-June 20, 2017

Poetry Workshop (advanced)
with award-winning poet 
Jane Medved

​White Fire: The Spaces Between Words
May-June, 2017


​Experiential workshop with
trained bibliotherapist & poet,
Sheffi Raiskin
Join award-winning poet Jane Medved in a series of 6 workshops, in which we will examine various techniques to outwit our rational brain and “write ahead of our conscious minds." 

​We will study the techniques of other writers and put into practice the art of startling ourselves. Class time will be spent on editing and refining our own poems, as well as generating new material. This workshop is for writers with experience.
​The Torah is said to have been written as black fire on white fire. We will be dealing with the realm of the white fire, the spaces between the words.

Since no text can fully delineate every aspect of the story, readers become part of the creative process, constantly filling in the gaps with their own contexts — things seen, felt, experienced, and read. Bibliotherapy deals with the ways in which we fill in these gaps. ​