Masterclass: Non-Fiction | Taking up residence again: Writing in, through and of the Body | Arvon
Masterclass: Non-Fiction
Book

Masterclass: Non-Fiction

Taking up residence again: Writing in, through and of the Body
Tutor
  • Polly Atkin
Date Tuesday February 18th 2025, 19:00-21:00 GMT
Location Online

We all live in and write from our bodies. They are our homes on this earth, and we experience everything through and with them. In Crip Ecologies Naomi Ortiz writes, ‘my body is the oldest story in the world. Part broken, part brilliant, all nuance’. Yet often our bodies are forgotten about or invisibilised on the page, in the same way our bodily experiences can be dismissed and discounted. In her essay about living with undiagnosed neurological disease, Jacqueline Alnes explains ‘to take up residence in my body again, I write.’ In this workshop we will explore writing the body, and writing through the body, as a way of taking up residence in it, of claiming our bodies and their histories. We will look at examples of life-writing that centre experiences of embodiment, focusing on how our relationship with our bodies and the relationships between our bodies and the world may be expressed. How can we learn from others to write ourselves into residence in our bodies, to let the body speak its own stories?


The Masterclass will be delivered via Zoom webinar, so you can take the session at your own pace, without the pressure of having your video or camera on. Sessions are also recorded so if you are unable to attend live, you will have access to the recording for a month afterwards.

Online: £40

Concessions: £20

As part of our effort to increase participation in the arts, half-price concessions are available for this course at checkout. There are a limited number of free subsidised places for those who cannot afford the concession price.

We are committed to making our Arvon at Home programme accessible to as many people as possible.

Across all of Arvon at Home

Masterclasses 

Online Writing Day

How I Write

Online Writing Weeks and Evening Courses

Subject to funding/permissions (please contact arvonathome@arvon.org for more details)

If you have any access issues that we have not covered here, please contact us on access@arvon.org

See here for more access information.

"These zoom opportunities are really helping to open my world and keep me inspired to write."
— Masterclass participant
"Arvon at Home creates a model to participate in inspirational tutoring for writers, at a distance. The feeling of attending to my writing life in an excellent fashion, and still having a half-day for my work and caring responsibilities at home, felt like a good balance."
— Masterclass participant
"It was an absolutely brilliant session and very very useful. And it made me realise how much I’ve missed this kind of workshop because of having children and family that I can’t leave. Now we’re all in the same boat the online stuff is truly transformative."
— Masterclass participant

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