Write Around the World 2026
February is the month of AWA’s (Amherst Writers & Artists’) annual fundraiser – Write Around the World. During this time, you can sample from over 100 workshops being provided by AWA-certified workshop facilitators – all for the price of your donation to AWA’s Power of Story Scholarship Fund.
Amsterdam Writers is offering Rainbow Writing, as well as special opportunities to screen the short film Brilliance. Please scroll down for further information.
Write Around the World 2026
February is the month of AWA’s (Amherst Writers & Artists’) annual fundraiser – Write Around the World. During this time, you can sample from over 100 workshops being provided by AWA-certified workshop facilitators – all for the price of your donation to AWA’s Power of Story Scholarship Fund.
Amsterdam Writers is offering Rainbow Writing, as well as special opportunities to screen the short film Brilliance. Please scroll down for further information.
View here the trailer for Brilliance – a Netherlands, Poland, UK co-production short film that screened internationally at numerous film festivals, was one of Eye International’s ‘Selected Dutch Shorts 2015’, and is in the collection of Lesflicks, the world’s largest streaming platform of lesbian content.
Like to watch Brilliance AND support a good cause? That’s easily arranged!
For the month of February, 2026, for a minimum $2 donation, you can watch Brilliance, right here! All proceeds will go to Amherst Writers & Artists for their Write Around the World – Power of Story Bursary Fund.
DONATE HERE TO WATCH THE FULL FILM
Increase quantity to donate more
Each unit = €2
On the Amherst Writers & Artists Substack, Ginger T Rex interviews Matthew Curlewis about his first interactions with AWA, his original facilitator training with Pat Schneider in Amherst, his workshops – undergoing and upcoming – and his writings and where you can find them. Matthew also reads two original pieces of his work.
Try a stand-alone session of Rainbow Writing – for Queer Colours of Every Shade
“‘Queer’ not as being about who you’re having sex with (that can be a dimension of it) but ‘queer’ as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”
In this quote, bel hooks sums up the experiences of many queer folk. Finding a voice in a world that often silences difference, queerness and self expression can be a struggle.
So sometimes, simply being offered a space in which to be creative, without having to edit one’s self, can unlock many wonderful things.
If you’re interested in writing to queer themes, or writing with fellow queers, or supporting folk in their writing, or just looking for a safe creative space, then join us for Rainbow Writing.
Using AWA Methodology, we provide
the safety, the trust and the encouragement to explore and express our queer selves through live in-session writing.
Register at the AWA Write Around the World Calendar
Thurs. 26th Feb – better for US / Canada / Australia / New Zealand time zones – 5-7.30 pm NYC / 2-4.30 pm LA / 11-1.30 am Amsterdam / 9(27th)-11.30 am Sydney / 12(27th)-2.30 pm Auckland
This workshop is being developed in collaboration with Meadow Jones PhD.
Coming up: two separate, 8-week live online workshop series, including manuscript review.
Series 1 commences Wednesday 11 March
Series 2 commences Tuesday 07 April
VISIT THIS PAGE FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION!
According to our participants…
I really enjoyed my time in this workshop with such talented and inspiring writers. Thank you for boosting my energy to put writing in my daily routine and to have fun with it. Matthew, thanks for your facilitating, and for coming up with such compelling prompts.
What I appreciated, and found most helpful about the class was the time spent being playful and just enjoying words. As a content/copywriter, writing has been so much about work and achievement for me in the past years that I forgot how much I can just take pleasure in writing without a real purpose in mind.
Megan Janicke –
Writers’ Stretch & Tone Participant
