Writer and director Morgan Cooper on turning a self-funded Bel-Air short into a series, building creative audacity before opportunity arrives, and staying resourceful across drafts, collaboration, and a children’s picture book.

You'll learn:

• Why “imperfect action” can be a practical antidote to creative paralysis, especially early in your craft.
• How he found a compelling dramatic lens by stripping away sitcom expectations and focusing on character archetypes and real-world stakes.
• What it can look like to invest commercial income back into self-initiated work to build a body of proof.
• Why “waiting for permission” often hides fear, and how starting anyway can change what’s possible.
• Why the “angle” of your idea matters, and how recalibrating it can be the difference between a draft that stalls and a draft that lands.
• How identifying the “big question” of a story can give your scenes direction and your revisions momentum.
• Simple ways to keep the creative channel open using a notes app, project scrap bins, and a journaling method that functions like index cards.
• How collaboration becomes part of the craft when you treat writing as iterative perspective-building, not a solitary performance.
• What writing a picture book can teach about economy, structure, and building an arc inside tight page limits.
• How designing a kid-led mission around resourcefulness can create momentum and emotional payoff in short form.

Resources & Links:

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Cooper’s original Bel-Air concept trailer
• Bel-Air on Peacock
• The College Dropout - Kanye West
• Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
• I Can Make A Movie! 
• Geneva Bowers - Illustrator and Artist
• Hair love - Matthew A. Cherry
• Film London
• Mediatrust.org - Mentoring Opportunities
• Dancing Ledge Productions - Mentoring Opportunities

About Morgan Cooper:

Morgan Stevenson Cooper is a Los Angeles-based writer and director and the creative force behind Bel-Air, the dramatic reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that grew out of his self-released short film in March 2019. After the film drew widespread attention, Will Smith and Westbrook Studios came on board as collaborators, and the series premiered in February 2022, with Cooper serving as creator, director, co-writer, and executive producer. He is a two-time Tribeca X winner for U Shoot Videos? and Pay Day, and is developing BLKCOFFEE as writer, director, and executive producer.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Essayist and fiction writer Erica Stern on writing hybrid nonfiction, weaving memoir with research and a ghost-story thread, and finding a publishing home for genre-defying work.   

You'll learn:

• What “hybrid nonfiction” can look like when memoir, research, and a fictional thread are all working toward one emotional truth.
• Ways to make a genre-bending draft feel cohesive, even when it’s built from multiple modes and timelines.
• How reverse outlining can help you figure out what each section is really doing, and tighten the book’s throughline in revision.
• Why “moving the pieces around” for a long time can be part of the process when the structure has to be discovered, not imposed.
• A mindset shift for writers making unconventional work: follow what the project needs first, before you worry about outcome or category.
• How to treat “weirdness” as an asset (not a liability) when the form is doing meaning, not just style.
• Practical publishing encouragement for genre-defying books: small presses can be a strong fit, and there’s a growing audience for hybrid forms.
• What it can look like to publish without chasing “bestseller” logic, and instead focus on reaching the right readers with the best version of the book.
• Why writing “for the market” isn’t the only path to publication—and how commitment to the story can be what ultimately helps it find a home. 
   

Resources & Links:

• 📑Interview Transcript
• Frontier: A Memoir and A Ghost Story by Erica Stern
• LWS Substack
• Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek

About Erica Stern:

Erica Stern is an essayist and fiction writer whose debut memoir, Frontier, was published by Barrelhouse Books in 2025. Her work has appeared in the Mississippi Review, The Iowa Review, and Denver Quarterly, and she has been a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Awards and the Mississippi Review Prize. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and holds a BA in English from Yale University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is from New Orleans and lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Novelists Maggie O’Farrell, Stacey Halls, and Ruta Sepetys on turning research into living scenes, building non-linear structure that still feels clear, and writing voice and dialogue that make the past feel immediate.
 

Timestamps:

00:01:30 Maggie O’Farrell

00:26:14 Stacey Halls

00:49:33 Ruta Sepetys 

You’ll learn:

• The importance of "reading like a writer" to reverse-engineer time, tense, and technique from books you love.
• How to structure a non-chronological narrative using flowcharts and “breadcrumb trails” so readers never feel lost.
• Where to look for small, specific historical details that unlock character, scene, and momentum.
• A practical way to treat research as idea-generation, not “homework you must finish” before you start drafting.
• A simple plotting method (index cards + one-sentence scenes) that helps you see the whole book at a glance.
• Why a first draft is allowed to be rough, and how that mindset can help you write faster and finish.
• How “writing toward a feeling” can guide structure when you can’t see the whole plot in advance.
• Ways to keep going through the long middle by focusing on the work itself, not external noise.
• How to use collaboration and expert readers to pressure-test cultural and historical authenticity.

Resources & Links:

• Join our LWS community!
• Maggie's full episode and notes
• Stacey's full episode and notes
• Ruta's full episode and notes
   

About the authors:

Maggie O’Farrell is the bestselling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, noted for lyrical prose and inventive structure; her craft insights span sentence-level cadence, non-linear timelines, and historically grounded voice.

Note: Our episode with Maggie was done in collaboration with Arvon, the UK’s leading creative writing charity. Arvon believes everyone can benefit from the transformative power of creative writing. It hosts residential, online and community-based writing courses and events, embracing over 6,000 people each year, tutored by some of the most respected writers in the UK today. Find out more at arvon.org

Stacey Halls is the UK author of The Familiars, The Foundling, and Mrs England, known for vivid period settings, propulsive plotting, and character-driven suspense; she outlines with index cards and drafts quickly before deep revision.

Ruta Sepetys is a Lithuanian-American novelist (Between Shades of Gray, Salt to the Sea) whose work uncovers suppressed histories with YA-accessible clarity; she emphasizes collaboration, ethical research, and a clear “why” for every project.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Playwright and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Moira Buffini on moving between theatre, film, and fiction, writing for yourself instead of the market, and shaping structure by rewriting toward the ending you want readers to feel.   
 

You’ll learn:

• Why “you are the audience” can be a practical rule for cutting through market noise and writing with conviction. 
• A useful way to handle reviews and outside opinions without letting them steer the work. 
• How to build story momentum when you can’t fully plot ahead, and why not knowing the next move can be a strength. 
• A structure approach based on “writing toward a feeling” at the end, then layering drafts until the story clicks. 
• What discipline looks like when you’re writing big worlds in prose, and how constraints can keep you from getting lost. 
• How a dramatist’s instincts (plot, structure, obstacles) can transfer into long-form fiction and help sustain narrative drive.   
• A grounded reminder about the “mundane” day-to-day of being a professional writer, and why that doesn’t cancel the magic. 
• The practical foundations she names for keeping your mind working (sleep, movement, and treating the body as part of the instrument). 
• What it can take to keep writing alongside caring responsibilities, and why persistence is often the hardest part.   
• The simplest career advice she returns to: don’t accept the story that you “can’t,” and keep putting in the hours. 

Resources & Links:

• 📑Interview Transcript
• Moira’s Agent Website
• Moira’s screenwriting credits
• National Youth Theatre in London
• Caryl Churchill
• The National Theatre London
• Dinner (play)
• Byzantium (film)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Harlots (tv series)
• The Torch Trilogy: Songlight, Torchfire
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• deus ex machina definition
• raconteur definition
• Robert Prosky
• The Dig (film)

About Moira Buffini:

Moira Buffini is an Olivier Award–winning UK playwright and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter, writing many plays for the National Theatre and the West End. Films include Tamara Drewe, Jane Eyre, Byzantium, and The Dig. She cocreated and was showrunner of Harlots. Songlight is her debut novel. She lives in London.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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London Writers’ Salon co-founder Matt Trinetti and Head of Writer Experience Lindsey Trout Hughes share prompts from our Dreaming Big in 2026: Creative Goal Setting for Writers workshop – designed to help writers get clear on what they actually want from their writing life in 2026, and translate that desire into a plan that can survive reality in the first 1-3 months of the year.

Through 8 steps – from identifying desire to committing to a 48-hour move – Matt and Lindsey step through over a dozen prompts, discuss why each is important for writers to think about, and share what’s coming up for them personally for the year ahead.

Download the free workbook: community.londonwriterssalon.com/dreamingbig

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:07) Step 0: Two Words (bringing in & leaving behind)

(08:05) Step 1: Identifying what we truly desire

(17:42) Step 2: Vision (translating desire into clear vision)

(25:18) Step 3: Moving from wanting to deciding

(34:35) Step 4: Building a project bank

(42:02) Step 5: Finding a first season focus

(47:32) Step 6: Designing your creative practice

(59:00) Step 7: Your 30-day plan & 48-hour move

(01:04:50) Step 8: Opening up to support

(01:09:40) Conclusions and next steps

You’ll learn:

• A simple “two words” ritual to decide what you’re bringing into 2026 (and what you’re leaving behind).
• Prompts to identify what you truly desire, including what you might feel embarrassed to say out loud.
• How to reframe desire as a helpful signal instead of something “selfish” you should downplay.
• How to build a project bank so you can choose one focus without feeling like you’re abandoning your other ideas.
• Ways to use simple lists to spark clearer project options.
• How to choose a first-season focus (a three-month container) so you’re not trying to hold the entire year at once.
• The importance of defining what “done” looks like for the season and setting milestones that make progress visible.
• How to design a writing practice while planning for obstacles before they derail you.
• How to set a measurable 30-day goal, choose your first moves, and turn intention into proof.  
   

About London Writers’ Salon:

London Writers’ Salon is a community and membership that helps writers make meaningful progress on their work, stay committed to a writing practice, and find creative friends around the world. Members can build consistency through Writers’ Hour, develop craft through interviews and workshops, and connect with a global community of writers. 
 

Resources & Links: 

• Download the free workbook at: community.londonwriterssalon.com/dreamingbig
• Join Writers’ Hour - daily silent writing sessions: writershour.com
• Attend live events and workshops – Become a Member: community.londonwriterssalon.com/membership

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon

Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon

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Translator, performance artist, writer, and educator Haleh Liza Gafori on translating Rumi with fidelity and music, and what his poetry can teach us about liberation, attention, and love.

You’ll learn:

• Habits Haleh uses to re-centre and get quiet enough to work.
• How she learned to trust sound and rhythm first, and let meaning arrive through the ear.
• The moment she realised she needed to make her own translations, and what triggered that decision.
• A simple test for “is this translation working?”, including why one wrong image can flip the whole poem.
• Principles Haleh uses to keep translations clear, musical, and emotionally true in English.
• What an editor can mean by “find your voice,” and how to develop a consistent voice as a translator.
• How to work with old texts honestly, including naming what doesn’t align with your ethics today.
• What Rumi can teach modern readers about attention, ego, and compassion in daily life.
• How love shows up in Rumi as a discipline, not a vibe, and why that matters in hard times.
• What Haleh is building next, and how teaching can deepen (not dilute) your creative practice.

Resources & Links

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Gold: Poems by Rumi 
• Water: Poems by Rumi 
• Rumi’s Secret by Brad Gooch 
• Haleh’s Website 
• Haleh’s Instagram 
   

About Haleh Liza Gafori:

Haleh Liza Gafori is a New York City-born translator, performance artist, writer, and educator of Persian descent. A 2024 MacDowell fellow, she has translated the poetry of the Persian mystic and sage Rumi. Her book of translations, Gold: Poems by Rumi, was published by New York Review Books in 2022. Her second volume of translations, Water: Poems by Rumi, was released in 2025, also by NYRB Classics. Supported by an NYSCA grant, Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on the book, and has presented her work through performances, lectures, and workshops at institutions such as Lincoln Center, Stanford University, the Academy of American Poets, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her book of translations Gold has been incorporated into curricula at universities across the country.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon

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Writer and editor Mason Currey on what artists’ routines can teach us about focus, discipline, procrastination, and building a sustainable creative life.

You'll learn:

• What led Mason to writing, and the early pressures that shaped his relationship with the work.
• Why he started Daily Routines as a side project, and what he was trying to solve with it.
• The moment the blog went viral, and what changed when an audience arrived.
• What it took to turn a quote-collecting blog into a book, including the research and structure behind it.
• Why routines work best when they’re personal and flexible rather than prescriptive.
• Ideas for protecting your best hours, including Nicholson Baker’s “double morning.”
• The difference between physical routine and creative routine, and why both matter.
• A realistic way to design an hour of writing, including what to do when “nothing happens.”
• What Worm Zooms are, and why “small progress” can be a powerful creative philosophy.
• The question underneath every routine: how artists make time for the work while paying the bills.

Resources and Links:

• 📑Interview Transcript
• Nicholson Baker Books
• Making Art and Making a Living by Mason Currey 
• Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
• Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey
• Worm Zooms
• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann 
• Mason’s Substack

About Mason Currey

Mason Currey is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles and the author of the Daily Rituals books. In addition to compiling the Daily Rituals books, Currey was a design-magazine editor for ten years, working as the managing editor of Metropolis, the executive editor of Print, a senior editor at Core77, and the programming chair for the 2015 Core77 Conference. His freelance writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Slate, and he has delivered talks on the creative process to high school and college students, writers’ groups, and the partners of the design consultancy IDEO. Currey is currently writing a new nonfiction book and sending out a fortnightly newsletter on routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Debut novelist and 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow Allison King on blending history with magical realism, and what it takes to build a writing life while navigating the modern publishing landscape.

We discuss:

• Allison’s early relationship with stories and the role her grandmother played in shaping it.
• The path from fan fiction and short stories to publishing a debut novel.
• The dual timeline and braided structure of The Phoenix Pencil Company, moving between WWII-era Shanghai and contemporary Cambridge.
• Building a magic system at the heart of the novel, and why its consequences matter more than its mechanics.
• Pragmatic outlining and structural tools (including reverse outlining) for managing timeline-heavy drafts.
• Researching family history without turning the book into an autobiography.
• Writing about Alzheimer’s with care, and what Allison learned in revision about emotional precision.

Resources and Links:

• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King 
• Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia 
• LitUp Fellowship
• Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan 
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
• A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 

About Allison King

Allison King is an Asian American writer and software engineer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In technology, her work has ranged from semiconductors to platforms for community conversations to data privacy. Her short stories have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and LeVar Burton Reads, among others. She is also a 2023 Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow. The Phoenix Pencil Company is her first novel.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Neuroaesthetics researcher Susan Magsamen and Google design leader Ivy Ross on creativity as a biological necessity, intuition, and the aesthetic mindset for a good life.   

You'll learn:

• Habits that Susan and Ivy turn to when they need to re-centre.
• What Susan and Ivy are trying to change in the world with their day jobs. 
• The beginning of Susan and Ivy working together.
• Clear evidence that proved to Susan and Ivy that their work was needed.
• Advice for using your intuition to be more creative.
• How a writer might find their voice.
• Questions to ask yourself if you’re writing a similar book to Your Brain on Art.
• Principles that Susan and Ivy use to help them live a good life. 
• The link between nature and neuroaesthetics.
• The transforming power of journaling.

Resources and Links:

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
• Website
• Neuroarts Resource Center

About Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Susan Magsamen is the founder and director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is a faculty member, and she co-directs the NeuroArts Blueprint. Ivy Ross is Vice President of Design for hardware product area at Google, leading an award-winning team, and is also an arts grant recipient and recognised creative leader.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Poets Mary Jean Chan, David Whyte, and Anthony Anaxagorou read their work and unpack emotional truth, craft choices, and poems built from lived detail.  

You'll learn:

• How early “bad” poems can still be soothing and give you a way through angst. 
• Why simplicity of voice can beat complexity when a poem needs clarity. 
• How form and layout can carry a poem’s physicality, including a modern sonnet’s constraints. 
• How to face writer’s block by writing directly about the ways you can’t write. 
• Why repetition works in live readings, helping the audience “hear” what just landed. 
• How to mine notebooks for strong lines, then iterate through multiple drafts and edits. 
• A simple morning practice for capturing overheard language until you find where the poem starts.  

Resources and Links:

• Mary Jean Chan: maryjeanchan.com
• David Whyte: davidwhyte.com  
• Anthony Anaxagorou: anthonyanaxagorou.com
• Our full episode with Mary Jean Chan, #170: https://podcast.londonwriterssalon.com/episodes/170-mary-jean-chan-emotional-truth-in-contemporary-poetry-imagery-juxtaposition-and-finding-the-right-form
• Our full episode with David Whyte, #32: https://londonwriterssalon.simplecast.com/episodes/032-david-whyte-poetic-imagination-the-way-of-the-poet-PdTckwKE
• Our full episode with Anthony Anaxagorou, #12: https://podcast.londonwriterssalon.com/episodes/012-anthony-anaxagorou-push-past-self-doubt-and-think-like-a-poet-fHa8ehM1

About the poets:

Mary Jean Chan is the author of Flèche and Bright Fear (Faber), and their work has won and been shortlisted for major prizes. 

David Whyte is a poet and writer whose books include Consolations and The Bell and the Blackbird, alongside ongoing poetry and speaking work. 

Anthony Anaxagorou is a poet and publisher, founder of Out-Spoken, and author of After the Formalities and Heritage Aesthetics.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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