About Documentary Writing Workshop
Are you interested in documentary and travel writing but don't know where to start? Have an idea for a project but wonder how best to structure it?
Acclaimed writer and journalist Joseph Zárate, winner of the 2025 Eccles Institute and Hay Festival Global Writers Award, will lead this workshop in which he will discuss the research and writing process for his book Wars of the Interior (Granta, 2020). In this book, Zárate explores the social, political and personal impact of extractivism in the Andes and the Amazon forest of Peru, focussing on three stories woven around three natural resources: wood, gold, and oil.
No previous writing experience is needed, but attendees are encouraged to read Wars of the Interior ahead of the event. A 25% discount is available if you purchase Wars of the Interior through the GRANTA website with promo code BLJZ25. The workshop will be delivered in English.
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About the tutor
Joseph Zárate was the recipient of the 2025 Eccles Institute and Hay Festival Global Writers Award for his current project, Todo nace en el agua y muere en ella, a cultural history of the Amazon River. He won the Gabriel García Márquez Award in 2018 and the Ortega y Gasset Prize in 2016, and was awarded a 2018 Ochberg Fellowship by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma of the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York. Wars of the Interior was named one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times in Spanish and by Deutsche Welle.
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