For workshops in zoom, I try to replicate as far as possible the real-life experience of gathering around the table with other writers, so I keep the groups small and require everyone to have video enabled.
Please note: I’m based in the UK so do check the timings work for you if you are booking from other time zones.
I Will Hold You: Writing the Precious Gift of Friendship
Six Wednesday evenings, 4th November – 9th December 2026, 7.30-9.30, in Zoom
Friends are vital part of everyone’s story, whether they are in it for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Childhood friends, friends in need, imaginary friends, writing friends… intergenerational friendships, unlikely friendships, friendships lost and found…
This course is an invitation to explore the gift of friendship in poetry and prose. Venturing into worlds of memory and imagination, we’re all in it together at the virtual writing table, friends for the duration.
Booking closes at midnight on Wednesday 21st October
Mandala: Writing the Power of the Circle
Saturday 14th November 2026, 10.30-12.30 am and 4-6 pm and Sunday 15th, 4-6 pm in Zoom
A story is a circle; a life is a circle. Circle is the energy that moves through everything. In all religions, the circle is a sacred symbol and in Jungian psychology, the archetype of the Self.
This weekend course is an opportunity to find and feel the energy of the circle in your life and writing, with one workshop on fiction, one on poetry and one a dive into the personal, with memoir.
Everything the Power of the World does
Is done in a circle. The sky is round,
And I have heard that the earth is round
Like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nest in circles,
For theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again
In a circle. The moon does the same
And both are round. Even the seasons
Form a great circle in their changing,
And always come back again to where they were.
The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood,
And so it is in everything where The Power moves.
Black Elk, Medicine Man of the Oglala Sioux Nation
There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the Self – CG Jung
Booking closes midnight 2nd November
Private bookings
I can offer workshops on fiction, non-fiction, memoir and poetry, from sparking ideas to redrafting. I also teach writing workshops that draw on creative dreaming and image-work.
I’ve worked for nationwide organisations including The Society of Authors, Lapidus, Writing Magazine and The Scattered Authors; residential providers including The Arvon Foundation, Endelienta and The Writing Retreat, and a wide variety of small independents such as writing groups, after school clubs and home-educating families. I’m happy to work with groups of all ages and stages of experience.
Contact me without obligation if you would like to discuss your own event
What people say…
A fascinating and inspiring course. I had no knowledge of the Tarot but was definitely Tarot-curious – and now I’m hooked! What a great aid for writing (and for life). Sandra Greaves
I enjoyed Creative Journalling so much I have done it twice! It helped me feel creative outside of the ‘pressure’ to get a novel finished. All the exercises were magical and it was fascinating hearing each person’s response – all so different! Penny Joelson
I thoroughly recommend this course – it’s so much fun playing in your journal! Alex English
This course taught me how to bring my journal to life – to use it as a working document, to record, to cut and paste, to colour, to cut out, to draft and redraft. But most importantly to be bold when facing the blank page. I’ve learned to embrace my weaknesses (as perceived by me) and turn them into joy, to be free just to let stuff flow ~ Carol Cook
I’ve made it to the chapter book prize long list. It was the journaling course that really got me going with the ideas for this one – I shall never stop journaling now! ~ Cheryl Nosworthy
Everything seems to be flowing so much more easily… I feel reconnected, supported by a dream life I’d given no real attention to previously, and just aware of an opening of creative possibilities ~ Jackie Taylor
WritingRetreat@Escape2Cornwall tweet: From a retreat guest: @jennyalexander4 was fantastic. Such a lovely warm presence and so informative. She really got me working and thinking
Jenny’s workshops taught me to stop panicking about my creativity and to start listening properly to my own inner thoughts. I’ve used her workshop ideas again and again to help me cope with creative problems ~Moira Butterfieldhttp://www.moirabutterfield.com/
Jen’s techniques – and her generous sharing of them – have been responsible for many of my own personal breakthroughs as a writer ~ Liz Kessler http://www.lizkessler.co.uk
During Jenny’s collage workshop, which she led with a soulful gentleness, I had a sense that disparate parts of my mind spoke their sorrows and dreams, and discovered they all wanted the same things. Several years on, I am still nourished by the clarity and the freedom that emerged from the sweetness and excitement of that afternoon ~ Moira Munro http://www.moiramunro.com
In one short session, Jenny showed me the possibilities for taking my writing somewhere else, and now I am working on new ideas that expand what I learnt with her ~ Alison Boyle http://www.artificialsilk.org/
What I say…
You can listen to me talking about my approach to teaching workshops in this interview I gave recently for a new online course on Running Writing Groups, hosted by the Professional Writing Academy and written and taught by experienced writers and group facilitators Victoria Field and Anne Taylor.
