Course Information
Where: Online
Date: 1 Oct 2025
Duration: 26 weeks
Skill level: Intermediate
Frequency: Fortnightly
Sessions: 11
Price: £3,000
Payment plans available
Writing Long-read Reportage and Narrative Non-fiction with Granta Writers' Workshop
An intermediate-level course for non-fiction writers and journalists working on immersive, long-form stories that transcend straight news reporting to explore and analyse topical issues in depth and from different angles, offering new ways of understanding the defining particulars of our times.
The course guides participants through what it takes to find, pitch, research, structure and sustain an idea in long-form. We consider the complicated relationship of facts (and photographic images) to the truth, different modes of narration, the boundaries with fiction, ways to incorporate visual imagery and multimedia storytelling, and how to maintain reader engagement in long-form. We encourage experimentation and voice-driven writing alongside assiduous reporting, with the aim of producing long-reads that can change the conversation and affect public perception of institutions and society.
Over the six months you will develop one story – this could be an extended feature, reportage, investigative or state-of-the-nation piece, travel narrative, photo essay or interactive digital story. It could be a core portfolio piece, the beginning of a collection of essays, the seed of a book-length work of non-fiction, or a podcast or documentary idea.
You’ll be given a free one-year digital subscription to Granta magazine, as well as access to curated extracts from Granta books, and the magazine, podcast and video archive. Throughout the course there is insight from guest authors and Granta staff.
Finish the course with a story of up to 8–10,000 words, a pitch to take to an agent or editor, plus the confidence and resilience to maintain momentum with your project after the course ends.
Entry is by application to ensure you get the most out of the course. Answers to commonly asked questions can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Course completion opens up our Alumni Space, which provides ongoing access to industry professionals, including authors, Granta editors and literary agents.
This course requires up to 10 hours of study per week. Find out more about the course and teaching method from our education partners Professional Writing Academy.
Samira Shackle | Course Director
Samira Shackle is a multi-award-winning freelance journalist, author and editor. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian’s Long Read, and also writes for Guardian Saturday magazine, Al-Jazeera English, Prospect and GQ. She has broadcast on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and Al-Jazeera English.
She writes deeply reported, long-form features on a wide range of subjects – from the Gatwick drone mystery to the Pakistani military’s promotion of travel influencers, and the rise of hoarding disorder. Her work has won multiple awards, including a One World Media award (2023) and a Foreign Press Association award (2021). In 2024 she was shortlisted as freelancer of the year at the Society of Editors’ awards.
Samira’s first book, Karachi Vice – a work of narrative non-fiction about Pakistan’s largest city – was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week on its publication in 2021. In the Mail on Sunday, Razia Iqbal described it as: ‘A brilliant portrait of a complex place … the book is like a novel; each character is so beautifully drawn that we are in their heads with ease, though that is often a hard place to be.’
