Writing Across Cultures: Identity, Voice and International Readers
About the course
Course Fee
85
Course Length
1 Day
Weekly Study
75 mins
Testimonial
“Litro Masterclasses pushed me to see my strengths and weaknesses clearly, with honest feedback and detailed critique. The experience helped me develop work I could take beyond my local scene and into international opportunities.”
Course summary
Live on Zoom: Saturday 19 September 2026, 11:00 am-12:15 pm ET / 4:00-5:15 pm UK | 60-75 mins | Seats capped at 15
Writing Across Cultures: Identity, Voice and International Readers is a live, single-session masterclass for writers working with culture, identity, place, family history, migration, language, or life between different worlds.
The session focuses on a practical question: how do you make culturally specific writing clear and engaging for readers beyond your immediate context without over-explaining, flattening the voice, or losing what makes the work alive?
You’ll look at how detail, memory, reference points, and voice can carry meaning on the page, with brief examples from international writers. The class ends with a guided writing prompt designed to help you draft a new scene or passage exploring identity and cross-cultural experience.
You’ll leave with fresh material, a reusable context-cues worksheet, and clearer next steps for shaping work for a wider literary audience.
How you will learn
You’ll learn through a focused mix of craft teaching, brief close reading, and guided drafting during the session — leaving with a new scene draft and a repeatable method for making culture and identity legible on the page without over-explaining.
- Live Zoom session (60–75 minutes): short teaching segment, close discussion of short excerpts, then guided writing.
- Signature exercise (in-session): a structured prompt to draft a scene exploring identity and cross-cultural tension (recommended 400–800 words).
- Practical Q&A: bring a project, idea, or craft question about audience, clarity, and cultural reference points.
- Optional share moment: share a short excerpt or reflection if you want — sharing is always opt-in.
- Optional upload (if enabled): submit your exercise draft after the session for light-touch guidance focused on next steps (not line-by-line edits).
- Worksheet download: a one-page worksheet you can reuse to map identity, audience, and context cues for future drafts.
- Replay: not recorded unless agreed in writing in advance.
The Tutor
Megan Turner
Megan Turner is a graduate of the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work has appeared in Witness, Atticus Review, Rio Grande Review, Fiction International, Cottonwood, and others. Originally from Baltimore, Megan grew up in Harrogate, England, and Columbia, Maryland in the U.S. She now lives in Maine.
