Throughout history, madness has repeatedly found expression in poetry. Poets labelled or identifying as mad have used their writing to confess inner struggles, resist societal pressures, or speak truth to the world. Their voices were sometimes revered, but often pathologized and ignored. In this workshop we will read and discuss several poems about madness from different time periods - some by better known poets, others more obscure. We will end the session by picking up our own pens to create our own madness in verse.
Please note: writing materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Mila Daskalova moved from Bulgaria to Edinburgh in 2012 to study literature and never left. She is a researcher at the University of Glasgow interested in the history of psychiatry and the role of literature in the representation and treatment of mental illness. She founded and co-edited Podslon (2021-2022), a Bulgarian magazine that explored mental health and illness through art and literature. She is currently working on her first book, News from the Asylum: The Nineteenth-Century Asylum Periodical in Britain, America and Beyond.
