This session will be an introduction to autofiction through two forms that are routinely employed in autofiction books that everyone is familiar with: diaries and letters. During the session we will read and discuss excerpts from autofiction works by Ocean Vuong, Eileen Myles and Doddie Bellamy that use the epistolary form, with an eye to emulating this form in our own writing. We will then share our own experience of letter and diary writing and discuss what types of lived experiences we put into words when we use these forms. At the end of the session we will write a letter or diary entry about the session itself.
This event is part of a series of 5 events which will explore the many different ways of expressing identity and trauma through autofiction, a form of writing that is situated between the autobiographical and the fictional, a genre that has been favoured by queer writers
The sessions are open to all and no previous experience is required.