Tim Tomlinson, professor of writing at New York University-Shanghai, held a three-hour creative writing workshop for the University of Santo Tomas Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies last July 2.

Billed as “Person, Place, Poem, Prose: A Workshop in Creative Writing,” the workshop drew writers and aspiring writers from UST and elsewhere The mini-workshop was co-sponsored by the Thomasian Writers’ Guild and the Literary Society of the Faculty of Arts & Letters.

Tomlinson is co-founder and president of the New York Writers Workshop and co-author of its popular book, “The Portable MFA in Creative Writing.” He has an MFA from Columbia University and has been giving writing workshops all over the world, including the US, the UK, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and China.

Judging from the laughter that often punctuated Tomlinson’s lecture, and from the number of members in the audience who got up to read what they had produced on the spot during the writing exercise conducted by him, the afternoon activity was a success. Perhaps one of the most important ideas they took away with them was that creative writing can be taught and it can be taught without inflicting pain.