Life Writing Masterclass on Imagination

What role does the imagination play when we are writing about lived experience? If we agree that the life-writer’s task isn’t simply to record events but to write about them in a way that will engage our reader in character, setting and story, then we need to bring our imagination to the work. Evoking remembered people or conversations or happenings in a vivid way in our writing can feel conflicting for life-writers so during this masterclass (mistressclass!) we’ll discuss ethical considerations and through a combination of in-class writing exercises and the study of extracts from published texts, we’ll explore techniques to enable us to tell our stories creatively and with integrity.

Hannah Vincent is a novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her first novel, Alarm Girl was published in 2014 by Myriad Editions and her second, The Weaning was published in 2018 by Salt. Her short story collection She-Clown and Other Stories, published by Myriad in 2020, was shortlisted for the Edgehill Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. Her stage plays have been produced by among others, The Royal Court Theatre and The Royal National Theatre Studio and her radio play Come to Grief won a 2015 BBC Audio award. She has a PhD in creative and critical writing from the University of Sussex.

The session will be held at the Jubilee Library in Brighton and will run from 11:15-16:45 with half an hour for lunch. The venue is fully accessible, near the train station and bus routes and with plenty of options for lunch (including bringing your own). If you have any specific needs to enable you to access the workshop, please do Contact Cathy Hayward - cathy@creativewritingprogramme.org.uk

The workshop is part of a series of one-day masterclasses held in the Easter and summer holidays. They are open to existing students on the Creative Writing Programme and other writers looking to improve specific areas of their writing craft.