Imaginary libraries

June 10, 2025 in Creative Writing, Oulipo, Events

How many ways can you organise a library?

I have been...

June 09, 2025 in Oulipo, Creative Writing

Have you ever thought about all the jobs you’ve had, whether paid for or as a volunteer?

Shoredticth in black and white, by Terry Freedman

Applying constraints to enhance creativity

May 23, 2025 in Creative Writing, EiS, Events, Oulipo

The standard advice for writers who are feeling uninspired or blocked is to allow your mind to wander where it will or to just start writing aimlessly to see what happens. Therefore to suggest the opposite approach, that of imposing some constraints on your thinking, seems completely counterintuitive.

Creative writing using constraints: a course

May 02, 2025 in Creative Writing, Events, News & views

What is writing with constraints? In a nutshell, it means writing according to specific and tight rules. The “official” name for this is Oulipo, which is a French acronym for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle.

More about the creative writing course I'll be teaching: books

May 30, 2024 in Creative Writing, Events, Oulipo book

In London on June 8th I’ll be teaching a course called Creative Writing Using Constraints, an introduction to the world of the Oulipo. This is a round-up of some of the books I’ll be referring to and talking about.

Creative writing using constraints (a forthcoming course)

May 09, 2024 in Oulipo

This course will look at examples of constraints created by some of the Oulipo’s main proponents, with work including the Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets, the Metro Poem, and others. Course participants will have the opportunity to try out several techniques, and invent one or two of their own.