A Professional Education seminar with Vasilis Manousakis, Ph.D.
When: January 8 – March 12, 2026 / every Thursday, 18:30-21:30
Where: Deree – The American College of Greece, Aghia Paraskevi Campus (6 Gravias Street, 153 42 Aghia Paraskevi)
Language of Instruction: Greek
Audience: By registration only
Registration Deadline: January 7, 2026
Overview
This 10-week Creative Writing seminar invites participants to explore and develop their voice through the expressive forms of poetry and creative nonfiction. Participants will engage with a variety of poetic genres including free verse, sonnet, prose poetry, and ekphrastic writing, while also examining personal essays, memoirs, and lyrical nonfiction. Through close reading of authors such as Ocean Vuong, Maggie Nelson, Ross Gay, and Joan Didion, they will analyze stylistic choices and thematic depth. Weekly writing exercises and peer workshops will encourage experimentation with imagery, tone, structure, and narrative voice. Emphasis will be placed on crafting authentic, emotionally resonant work that bridges personal experience with universal themes. By the end of the seminar, students will produce a portfolio of original pieces and gain confidence in revising and presenting their work.
Who is this for?
This seminar is for writers who want to dive deeper into poetic techniques and want to learn and explore the genre of creative non-fiction/personal essay. Participants can be from any discipline and field.
Why attend?
Discover your creative voice in this 10-week Creative Writing seminar focused on poetry and creative nonfiction. Through guided workshops and inspiring readings, participants will explore genres such as free verse, prose poetry, memoir, personal essay, and lyrical nonfiction. From intimate reflections to vivid storytelling, participants will learn to shape language with precision and emotion. Whether you’re drawn to poetic imagery or narrative truth, this course offers a space to experiment, revise, and share your work in a supportive community of writers.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:
- recognize and understand the structure of poems
- narrate real stories in a fictional way
- create poetic personas
- condense or embellish their sentences depending on the genre
- work with a word limit and/or given prompts and instructions
- use other arts in their storytelling (ekphrastic writing)
- apply the techniques taught in their own writing
- understand writing as a means of personal expression
- explore poetic language
- realize the benefits of creative expression in their personal life
- share their personal opinions in a creative way
- create publication-ready material
Dates & Times
10 in-class sessions (30 hours in total)
Thursdays, 18:30-21:30
Dates:
January 8, 2026
January 15, 2026
January 22, 2026
January 29, 2026
February 5, 2026
February 12, 2026
February 19, 2026
February 26, 2026
March 5, 2026
March 12, 2026
Certificate of Participation
In order to be awarded the Certificate of Participation from the Deree – Center of Professional and Continuing Education, participants will need to fulfill the below criteria:
- Attendance of 8 out of 10 sessions
- Completion of 80% of the assignments
Course fees
Regular single participant fee: €350
Members of the ACG Community, Professional Education past participants and the unemployed: €320
Vasilis Manousakis, Ph.D.
Vasilis Manousakis is a short-story writer, poet and translator, and a member of the permanent teaching staff at the University of Patras, whose work has appeared in New American Writing, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Barcelona Ink, Parentheses and Drunken Boat among others. He writes reviews and translates poetry and short stories for literary magazines and e-zines. He has been one of the founding members of Bonsai Stories, the blog directly linked to Planodion literary magazine. The blog is dedicated to Flash Fiction and work from many well-known writers from Greece, the United States, and other countries, has appeared there. These flash stories have been collected in two printed volumes so far and a special tribute to 9/11 stories has appeared in a third volume, in which Vasilis was in the editorial committee. Recently, he has taught Creative Writing courses in New York Writers Workshop (with international participants from various countries), Scribophile ((with international participants from various countries) and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture (with Greek participants). He holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary American Poetry and has taught Creative Writing, Modern Poetry, Short Fiction and Audiovisual Translation in universities and colleges in Greece, Cyprus and the United States. His focus on the human thought and behavior in his writings has led him to a Master’s Program in Mental Health Counseling and he holds individual and group sessions with clients, specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Narrative Therapy (a combination of Creative Writing and Psychotherapy). He also volunteers and teaches Creative Writing in prisons.
For more information, please email [email protected] or call +30 210 600 9800 ext. 1532, 1332.