This ten-week course of evening classes was run for the first time in the summer term, 2000. Open to students of any level of writing experience, and with any or no practice in using the Internet, it encouraged the participants to develop as writers through close creative involvement with each other. The idea for the course developed out of my experiences of 1. teaching creative writing for several years in the Department of Continuing Education at Reading University, and the imaginative energies released when writers work together in a group; 2. the positive impact on my own writing of working collaboratively; 3. the potential of the internet for writers, not merely as an information resource or a publishing outlet but as a uniquely stimulating medium for creative communication and collaboration.

I am grateful for the special resources we were given, that helped to make this course a success: at the Department, access to the computer lab and a classroom; and at the trAce Online Writing Community, our own private virtual conference. 

For details of this and the rest of the Creative Writing programme, 2000-2001, contact: The Department of Continuing Education, University of Reading, London Road, Reading, RG1 5AQ U.K. Tel. 0118 975 8347. e-mail  continuing-education@reading.ac.uk or see the Department's website