Anna specialises in workshops for university undergraduates, postgraduates, academic and non-academic staff.
Courses offered by Anna Barker
Courses offered by Dr Anna Barker include:
- Find your voice and hone narrative craft: intensive writing retreats and workshops for Masters and PhD students
- Explain your research to the public and develop a public/media profile
- Publish your research for different audiences
- Cultivate creativity in your academic writing
Anna has a doctorate in creative writing, is an award-winning author and has extensive experience in teaching academic writing to undergraduates, postgraduates and early career researchers.
Following a successful career as an award-winning feature writer and investigative journalist, Anna published two novels. The Floating Island (Arrow, 2008) won a Betty Trask best debut award from the Society of Authors. Her second novel, Before I Knew Him (Arrow, 2009) was shortlisted for a Good Housekeeping Good Read award.
Alongside her writing career, Anna was a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) at Teesside University (2011–2014) where she taught academic writing skills to hundreds of students. During this time, she developed an essay-writing tool in the form of an app called ALEX.
As published author, journalist, copywriter and communications specialist, Anna’s experience makes her ideal for facilitating bespoke and practical courses and workshops for a range of disciplines. She works both one-to-one and in workshops and particularly enjoys transposing the techniques of creative writing onto academic writing to enable students and academics hone their narrative craft and find their writing voice.
Working with Anna changed my perception of how to write in a way which was clear, concise and accessible to a range of audiences. This helped in making me a confident writer. The group aspect of the training worked really well, as sharing projects and ideas helped to look at a particularly difficult project from a new perspective.
The mix of … presentations, group discussions and practical exercises was very beneficial for me to apply new knowledge to my own situation. Anna’s wide experience of writing and editing was demonstrated by her depth of understanding and ability to tailor her teaching to the needs of her students.
The workshop consisted of a variety of useful strategies and allowed essential time to consider personal projects. Anna’s guidance enabled me to successfully convert from an academic, to a journalistic style of writing and has resulted in three publications in a magazine relating to my professional practice. Anna’s relaxed and reassuring but constructive approach instilled confidence and enabled actual outputs.
