Dr Pragya Agarwal is the writer of four non-fiction books including the widely acclaimed (M)otherhood and Hysterical. Pragya is a visiting professor of social inequities at Loughborough University and a visiting fellow at University of Oxford. Her writing has been published widely in The Guardian Scientific American, New Scientist, Prospect, Florida Review and Literary Hub. She also teaches creative writing courses for Irish Writers Centre and Arvon.
Writing Motherhood
Fri 18 October 2024 - Sun 20 October 2024
Tutors
/ Pragya Agarwal & Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Guest Reader
/ Mari Ellis Dunning (Digital)
Course Fee
/
From
£275 - £375 per person
Genres
/ FictionHealth & Well-beingNon-FictionPoetry
Language
/ English
The topics of motherhood and womanhood can provoke a range of feelings, emotions, and responses. This cross-genre weekend course, led by writer and behavioural scientist, Pragya Agarwal and poet, editor, and novelist Carolyn Jess-Cooke, will encourage you to explore your own personal experience whilst also discussing the societal, historical, and scientific factors that shape the way we think and talk about motherhood.
You will be supported by the tutors and your fellow participants as you consider topics such as fertility, physical change, joy, trauma, and mental health. The tutors will also encourage you to think honestly about the modern-day context of the climate emergency and how such factors can impact our personal and communal decision-making. Over the course of the weekend, the tutors will also share creative writing and research advice tailored to your work, varying from poetry and novels to long-form creative non-fiction.
In a welcoming, supportive, safe, and inclusive environment, you will be invited to take part in group discussions, readings, and writing exercises that will inform, inspire, and hone your thinking and writing, whatever your genre or experience may be.
Bursaries
One £100 bursary space is available for this course. To apply, please complete this application form. Deadline for applications: Sunday, 18 August 2024
For further information about the support available, please visit our Financial Assistance page: https://tynewydd.wales/courses-retreats/financial-support/
Tutors
Pragya Agarwal
Carolyn Jess-Cooke
CJ Cooke, also known as Carolyn Jess-Cooke, grew up on a council estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the height of the Troubles. Since then, she has published 16 books in 23 languages and won numerous awards, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, a Tyrone Guthrie Prize, a K Blundell Award, and she has won a Northern Writer’s Award three times. In 2011, her debut novel, The Guardian Angel’s Journal, was published by Little, Brown. The novel was an international bestseller. Her second novel, The Boy Who Could See Demons (Little, Brown, 2012), is a cult classic. Her sixth novel, The Lighthouse Witches (HarperCollins) was published in October 2021, and was an Indigo Book of the Month, an international bestseller, a New York Public Library Book of the Year and nominated for both an Edgar Award by Mystery Writers of America and an ITW Thriller Award in 2022. It is soon to be a major TV series produced by StudioCanal and The Picture Company. A Haunting in the Arctic (HarperCollins) is her latest novel and is published in October 2023. Now Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, CJ convenes the prestigious MLitt Creative Writing, and she researches ways that creative writing can help with trauma and mental health. Throughout 2013-18 she directed the Writing Motherhood project, which explored the impact of motherhood on women’s writing. She is also the founder and director of the Stay-at-Home! Literary Festival, which is dedicated to providing people with accessible, inclusive, and eco-friendly ways to access literature. CJ has four children and lives with her family in Glasgow, Scotland.
Guest Reader
Mari Ellis Dunning (Digital)
Mari Ellis Dunning’s debut poetry collection, Salacia (Parthian, 2018), was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2019. Her second collection, Pearl and Bone (Parthian, 2022), explores the complexities of early motherhood, and specifically considers the circumstances of becoming a mother during the COVID pandemic. It was selected as Wales Arts Review’s Number 1 Poetry Choice of 2022. Mari is a PhD candidate at Aberystwyth University, where she is writing a historic novel set in sixteenth-century Wales, exploring the relationship between accusations of witchcraft, the female body and reproduction. Mari lives on the west coast of Wales with her husband, their two sons, and their very adorable poochon.