Courses offered by Anna Barker include:
- Getting published (with an emphasis on how to structure novels, develop character and self-edit for publication)
- Explaining research to the public: developing a public/media profile
- Writing for business (how to write effective executive summaries, reports and proposals)
- Finding your voice and honing narrative craft: intensive writing retreats for PhD students
- Writing for different audiences
- Career writing: developing academic writing for early career researchers
About Anna
Anna is unusual in her wide and deep experience of different writing styles. A 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.
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.
It is her extensive experience of varying forms of communication and her experience as a published author which feeds into her work as a teaching and learning consultant. She works both one-to-one and in workshops and particularly enjoys transposing the techniques of creative writing onto academic writing to help students and academics hone narrative craft and find their writing voice.