Shanghai · Established 2021

A studio for young
readers and writers.

The Steve Jacobi Literature, Arts & Writing Studio was founded in Shanghai in 2021 to help young people develop a solid understanding and a broad appreciation of literature and the arts through tutoring, consultancy and a programme of events.

Tutoring and consultancy services

Reading and writing through literature

Grade 3 and above; close reading of novels, poems and plays, and writing that grows out of them.

Creative and non-fiction writing

Fiction, poetry, essays, criticism, academic writing, journalism, playwriting and screenwriting.

Introduction to the humanities

History, psychology, philosophy, film, drama and pop music.

College and other personal essays

Personal statements, application essays, and writing about oneself.

The Studio also publishes The Supplement, its literary magazine.

Founder

Covers of Going Naked Is the Best Disguise, Laughing Matters and A Short Series of Discrete Problems

Dr. Steve Jacobi

Over the years, Steve has moved between different arts-connected roles:

Teacher: 30+ years in education; has taught in leading UK and international universities and schools.
Writer: Royal Literary Fellow; 2 novels, 3 works of non-fiction; features and criticism for The Times and The Daily Telegraph.
Playwright and director: Around fifty plays directed or written in London, Singapore and China.

Education

University of Cambridge

St Catharine’s College — BA (Hons) English Literature; MA

University of Edinburgh

Certificate of Education; Postgraduate Certificate of Education

University of London

PhD — The Later Novels of Sir Angus Wilson: A Lacanian Approach

University of London

MA Screenwriting

Teacher and educational leader

More than thirty years in education. Deputy Head of English at Dulwich College and Head of English at University College School, London, and a Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Warwick (2007–08).
Former IB Director, Director of Studies, Director of Culture, and senior management team member across UWCSEA Singapore, Repton Dubai, and Wellington College China, specializing in school setup, IB coordination, and university counseling
Created and directed four Festivals of Education and five Arts Festivals — week-long, whole-school events that take every pupil off timetable.

Writer and Academic

Two novels, Going Naked Is the Best Disguise and A Short Series of Discrete Problems (Secker & Warburg); the first was dramatised on BBC Radio 4.
Acting My Life, the actor Ian Holm’s autobiography, written with him; Laughing Matters, a study of the English sense of humour; and It Is What It Is, the biography of the former England footballer Carlton Palmer.
Features and criticism for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer Sports Monthly, The Times Magazine, Marie Claire and Arena, among others.
Radio plays, short stories and documentaries for BBC Radio 4, most recently Buried and The Iceman Goeth.
Academic writing in The Dickensian and other critical journals, and in British Fiction After Modernism (Palgrave).

Playwright and director

Has directed or written around fifty plays, in London, Cambridge, Singapore and China.
In China he has written and directed six plays, and directed four others, including Sophocles’ Electra, Euripides’ Medea and Shakespeare’s Richard II.
Devised and directed a rarely performed play by Christopher Marlowe at the Globe, with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead.
Devised the music and choreography for poems by the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, a concept that was reconstituted in the UK and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Productions have been staged in an underground car park and a jazz club, and one was a promenade performance. A Man Throws Coffee Over a Girl, written in Chinese and English, was due to go to the Edinburgh Festival before the pandemic.
In 2023 he was artistic director of the musical The Brothers Karamazov at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.