Writing the Body Writing the Body Writing the Body

Writing the Body

Step into the art of writing the body in this immersive week-long course. Explore embodiment, sensation and discover how to translate physical experience into powerful prose.

Level

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Improving

What do these levels mean?

Location

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London

Length

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1-5 days
  • Start Date
  • Time
  • Monday–Friday, 10:00–16:00

Places available

£595

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Everything you need to write about the body.

How can we render the pain, joy and expectations of our bodies in the world? How can we translate our physical experiences in language which will resonate with readers?

In this one-week intensive course, novelist Jessica Andrews will guide you through a series of close readings, generative exercises and discussions to reimagine how you might write about the body.

You’ll consider a diverse range of extracts from writers – such as Garth Greenwell, Eimear McBride and Carmen Maria Machado – who articulate the physicality of the body through sensory and emotional writing and experimentation with form and linguistics. You will also deeply consider the political implications of bodily writing – as well as the freedoms and limitations experienced by different bodies, as determined by society’s codes, expectations and histories.

By the end of the course you should have an effective piece of writing centred around the body, which can be used to begin a new project, or to refine or improve a project you’re already working on. You’ll also leave with the support of fellow writers keen to go and continue on the same journey of writing about the body.

Is this the right course for me?

Whether you are a novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist – or a combination of these – this course will help you create compelling writing through an examination of sensory evocation, narrative action, tone, and structure, across both fiction and non-fiction.

The course is designed to provide the craft essentials and deep thought to writing about the body which would assist writers starting out as well as those much further along their writing journey.

Looking at techniques from a range of forms, and focusing on the craft of writing about the body, we will ask questions about our body and its place in the world.

We’ll look at texts from authors who explore writing the body in new and interesting ways, such as Cleanness by Garth Greenwell, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, Body Work by Melissa Febos, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Mrs S by K Patrick, God Complex by Rachael Allen and others.

    This course takes place Monday to Friday at Faber's offices in Hatton Garden. Teaching time will run from 10:00 until 13:00 each day, followed by a break for lunch.

    The course will then continue between 14:00 and 16:00 (with a 15:00 finish on the final day). Each day there will be opportunities to share your work with the group.

Course Programme

Session 1

Monday 28 July, 10:00–16:00

What is embodied writing?...

Session 2

Tuesday 29 July, 10:00–16:00

Action and physicality...

Session 3

Wednesday 30 July, 10:00–16:00

Senses and emotion...

See remaining sessions

Course Programme

Writing the Body

Session 1

Monday 28 July, 10:00–16:00

What is embodied writing?

We will look at a brief history of embodied writing and consider some of the socio-political implications of writing from and about the body.

We will read ‘In Praise of Navel-Gazing’ by Melissa Febos, and think about why the body may have been historically excluded from literature. We will also think about which kinds of bodies are deemed worthy of literature, and how we might address this in our own work.

Session 2

Tuesday 29 July, 10:00–16:00

Action and physicality

We will analyse writers such as Garth Greenwell and K Patrick, who portray the body through the use of direct action. We will think about how these writers excavate the body and emotions through precise, physical descriptions, and practise these techniques within our own work.

Session 3

Wednesday 30 July, 10:00–16:00

Senses and emotion

We will look at writers such as Ocean Vuong and Natalie Diaz, who use a variety of techniques to represent the body through sensory experience. We will think about the motivations for using different approaches to represent diverse bodily experiences, and how this might best inform our choices in our own work.

Session 4

Thursday 31 July, 10:00–16:00

Formal and linguistic experimentation

We will examine writers like Eimear McBride and Carmen Maria Machado who use formal experimentation and fragmented language to represent bodily experience. We will consider the role of experimentation in expanding our horizons as writers and think about the inherent contradictions in attempting to represent corporeal experience within language.

Session 5

Friday 1 August, 10:00–16:00

Interiors, exteriors and social codes

We will look at the ways different writers juxtapose the interior and exterior realms of the body. We will discuss literary representations of the freedoms and limitations experienced by different bodies, as determined by societal codes, expectations and histories. There will also be opportunities to share your work and your reflections on the week with the group

Tutors

Jessica Andrews. Credit Peter Arkley Bloxham.

Jessica Andrews

Jessica Andrews is a novelist. Her work explores intersections of social class and gender in relation to the body. Her debut novel, Saltwater won...

More About This Tutor
Jessica Andrews

Location

The Bindery

51 Hatton Garden

London EC1N 8HN

How to get here

Faber’s office, The Bindery, is well connected by public transport, with Farringdon Station just five minutes’ walk away, and stops for several bus routes in the area too. If you’re coming from outside of London, the office is a short bus or taxi journey from Kings Cross, Euston and St Pancras stations.

Browse the Reading Room

From author interviews and writing tips to creative writing exercises and reading lists, we've got everything you need to get started – and to keep going.

For more information, message us or call 0207 927 3827