Six weeks of 90-minute writing workshops to help you hone your craft or pick up the pen for the first time

Location: Culture House Sunderland, Keel Square, High Street West, Sunderland SR1 3DZ

Time: 1pm–2.30pm, Fridays

Date: 23 October 2026–27 November 2026

Start Writing Horror is an introductory course aimed at all levels of genre fiction writing. Whether you’re a seasoned scribe of all things spooky, wanting to add a few more layers to your work, or just dipping your toes into the shadows, you’re welcome on this course. You’ll work with novelist and Faber Academy tutor Matt Wesolowski in weekly sessions that focus on different aspects of the darker side of fiction including building believable characters, atmosphere and how to escalate fear. This course is ideal for anyone writing in the horror genre or else just wanting to use some techniques to elevate their writing.

About the workshop facilitator:

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, He is a former English teacher for young people in the PRU and care systems.

His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick. Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller. Changeling, the third book in the series, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His fourth book, Beast, won the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Independent Voice Book of the Year award in 2020 and was followed by Deity and then Demon in 2022. (Dont) Call Mum, a novella for the Northern Weird Project was published by Wild Hunt in 2025.

Matt currently works as a tutor for Faber Academy. He lives in Newcastle with his partner and son, several tanks of rescued goldfish, a snake, a cat and an axolotl.

Description supplied by the event organiser.