Lidia Yuknavitch has said that we can resist binaries and ‘write in the liminality where anything is still possible’, utilising the power of storytelling to reimagine ourselves or even our reality. We can challenge tropes and situate our characters in fantastic new tales. Perhaps in lyrical or poetic utopian dreams, maybe in fiction or essays that refuse conventional wisdom about the ways LGBTQIA+ people live their lives.
There are significant new stories to tell. And we can write these stories with abandon. As we free ourselves through writing, we can become more attuned to our own sense of self and wellbeing. There is a growing body of evidence that autobiographical writing, or writing that expresses our deeper feelings, has not only benefits for our mental health, but our physical well-being too.** With its roots in generative coaching, this course will help you tap into the writing that matters most to you.
Where once writers such as Henry James, Radclyffe Hall, EM Forster, Virginia Woolf and others had to write with a great sense of daring but cryptically, we can now write however we choose. We can be as conventional or as unconventional as any other writer chooses, without compartmentalizing or labelling ourselves and our writing potential. Think of Maggie Nelson’s work, inverting assumptions about narrative in memoir. Think of Mohsin Zaidi’s tell-it-all, intimately confiding in the reader in a way even he might have once considered impossible.
Through selected reading materials, discussion prompts and writing exercises, we will explore what it might mean to write experimentally and with fervour. With coaching tips drawn from mind-body psychology to help you unleash your creativity and apply it to whatever genre or topic you want to write.
Course outline
- Three assignments, including reading material, coaching tips and writing exercises
- An opportunity to work in pairs to share feedback on your main assignment, and wider peer feedback on your other writing assignments
- Detailed written feedback from the course tutor on your final 1,500 word assignment
- A live Zoom Q+A ‘drop-in’ session on the opportunities for publishing queer poetry and prose with Andrew Kauffmann, in the final week of the course
- An online writing community, lasting beyond the end of the course
This course is asynchronous (so you can log in and add to the discussion whenever you want) with weekly ‘windows’ of when you should read assignments, upload your work or offer and receive feedback.
Course content
Across three different assignments we will be considering:
Assignment one: Our impossible stories – writing with ‘gay abandon’
- Our different writing personas
- Storytelling as a stimulus for unique personal expression
- Queer writing as a vehicle for challenging the status quo
Assignment two: Complex, contradictory – breaking down the binaries in queer storytelling
- Telling new stories and telling stories differently
- Searching for the deeper truth – rethinking voice and character
- Writing that resists easy categorisation – queering the form
Assignment three: Mind and body connections – embracing our creativity
- Using doubt, guilt and shame in our writing
- Mind-body psychology as an aid for our writing lives
- A new archive – reimagining what we can publish and where
Reading samples will be drawn from a wide range of LGBTQ+ writers including Maggie Nelson, Garth Greenwell, Carmen Maria Machado, Andrew McMillan, Pedro Lemebel, Hervé Guibert and Lidia Yuknavitch.
Learning online
The course will take place online, in a closed group on a platform called Slack. You’ll need to have internet access to receive the assignments and when you give and receive feedback. Slack is easy to use, and we’ll provide you with full instructions and guidance before the course starts. On Slack, we won’t have scheduled live chats, but there will be plenty of opportunity to interact with Andrew and the other course participants in discussion threads, throughout the six weeks.
