A Professional Education seminar with Vasilis Manousakis, Ph.D.
When: January 16 – March 20, 2025 / 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 15, 2025
10 in-class sessions (30 hours in total )
Thursdays, 18:30-21:30
Dates:
January 16, 2025
January 23, 2025
January 30, 2025
February 6, 2025
February 13, 2025
February 20, 2025
February 27, 2025
March 6, 2025
March 13, 2025
March 20, 2025
Overview
A creative writing seminar designed to explore storytelling in the arts and creative non-fiction (journalistic, travel accounts, opinion essays) through diverse practice exercises using the arts spectrum.
Who is this for?
This seminar is for aspiring writers and writers who have already published but feel the need to enhance their creative skills in particular genres. Participants can be from any discipline and field.
Why attend?
This seminar will give the participants the opportunity to explore their inner resources and express themselves in many ways through the prompts and writing exercises given. The participants will learn and practice a specific range of genres and techniques, and this will help them find their own preferences and, eventually, their own voice. Genres such as short story, film, theatrical plays will be introduced, and the participants will have the opportunity to create their own portfolio at the end of the course to present it to publishers and literary magazines in Greece and abroad. Exercises will include writing with prompts, writing focusing on one emotion, creating a character, opinion articles on the arts, and more. Moreover, participants will receive their instructor’s and their peers’ feedback weekly, thus having the opportunity to improve their ideas and their writing. The participants will have the opportunity to use other arts to tell their stories.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:
- recognize and understand the structure of stories
- narrate stories in numerous ways
- create plausible characters
- condense or embellish their sentences depending on the genre
- work with a word limit and/or given prompts and instructions
- use other arts for storytelling
- apply the techniques taught in their own writing
- understand writing as a means of expression
- explore the limits of language
- realize the benefits of creative expression in their personal life
- share their opinions in a creative way
- create publication-ready material
Certificate of Participation
In order to be awarded the Certificate of Participation from the Deree – School of Graduate and Professional Education, participants will need to fulfill the below criteria:
- Attendance of 7 out of 10 sessions
- Completion of 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.