International Writers' Collective

Ada Limón — former U.S. Poet Laureate and one of the most celebrated poets writing in America today — sits down with IWC Director Sarah Carriger to talk about what she’s learned in her over 20-year career. Drawing on her book Startlement , which features new poems alongside work from her previous six collections, Limón speaks about her approach to craft, her process, and how she keeps making...

In this master class, IWC teacher Elisabeth Dini talks craft, process, and the realities of publishing—centred on her debut novel Bearer of Bad News , published by Simon & Schuster. The novel follows Lucy Rey, a down-on-her-luck hairdresser who accepts an unusual job delivering a confidential message in exchange for a much-needed payout. The assignment takes her to the Italian Dolomites, where...

In this master class, New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus shares craft insights and unusually candid career advice in conversation with IWC instructor Joy Florentine. The author of more than 30 novels, Kraus has built an enviable cross-media career spanning books, film, and television. His collaborations with Guillermo del Toro produced The Shape of Wate r—the novelization of the Oscar-...

In this master class, Hong Kong-born poet Tammy Lai-Ming Ho shares craft and publishing insights in conversation with Michelle Lin – IWC teacher and assistant poetry editor at Narrative Magazine. The class focuses on If I Do Not Reply , Tammy’s third poetry collection and her first published in the UK. Written between 2019 and 2022, these poems bear witness to life in and out of Hong Kong du...

In this master class, recorded in Amsterdam on 24 May 2025, award-winning author Allison Amend shares lessons from writing and publishing her novel  Enchanted Islands . Inspired by a true story,  Enchanted Islands  follows the unlikely life of Frances Frankowski–from her Midwestern childhood as the daughter of Polish immigrants, to a covert World War II mission in the Galápagos, to her final...

Australian novelist Alison Edwards gave a master class for us on 8 February 2025 in Amsterdam. The class focussed on her debut novel Two Daughters (Atlantic Books Australia, 2024), the story of two young women from very different backgrounds and opposite sides of the world whose lives intersect in a way neither could have predicted. Alison began her fiction writing journey with the Collective and...

Poet and teacher Laura Wetherington gave a special online master class for us on 21 February 2021. You can listen to a recording of the first hour of the class below, or it is also available as a podcast from the services listed and from our own feed . The class focussed on craft in Laura’s latest poetry collection Parallel Resting Places , which won the 2020 New Measure Prize. Her debut col...

Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes, author of the novel Orchid & the Wasp and the award-winning poetry collection Gathering Evidence , gave a special master class for us on Sunday, 28 July 2019 at Boekhandel van Rossum in Amsterdam. You can listen to a recording of the class below, or it is also available as a podcast from the services listed and from our own feed . The class focused primarily on Hu...

Poet Joost Baars gave a special master class for us on Sunday, 26 August at Boekhandel van Rossum in Amsterdam. You can listen to a recording of the talk below or it is also available as a podcast from various services and from our own feed . Baars’s debut collection Binnenplaats (translated “Enclosure”) was awarded the 2018 VSB Poetry Prize, the world’s largest Dutch-language poetry p...

American author Karen Kao gave a special Master Class for members of the International Writers’ Collective on 22 July 2018 at Boekhandel van Rossum in Amsterdam. You can listen to a recording of the talk below or it is also available as a podcast from various services and from our own feed . Kao is the author of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle and will be joining our faculty from the autumn...