Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop – The Syria Campaign

This six-week Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop brought together Syrian women writers to explore writing as both a creative and political practice. The workshop was designed to support participants in developing the skills, confidence, and critical tools needed to articulate their experiences, perspectives, and positions in public life.

Grounded in the principles of creative nonfiction, the workshop approached writing as an ongoing process rather than a finished product. Participants engaged with writing as a way to think, resist silencing, and claim narrative authority, particularly in contexts shaped by political violence, displacement, and structural inequality.

Over the course of the workshop, participants committed to sustained collective practice: reading and discussing weekly texts, writing and revising original unpublished essays, and offering editorial feedback to one another. This collaborative model emphasized writing as a shared responsibility and fostered a community of care, accountability, and intellectual exchange.

Key themes included:

• Writing as a continuous and evolving practice
• Building sustainable writing habits and reading critically as writers
• Understanding fear, resistance, and self-censorship in public expression
• Developing voice and point of view
• Personal writing as a form of political engagement
• Crafting character and scene in nonfiction narratives

All sessions were held online, allowing participants to connect across geographies and circumstances.

This workshop was supported by The Syria Campaign, as part of its work with Syrian women human rights defenders.