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Course description
In this unique, immersive workshop, acclaimed author Gareth E. Rees explores how we can write ourselves into fiction, non-fiction, and innovative hybrid forms that blend the boundaries between the two. We will look at how the self can function as a character – unstable, unreliable, and shaped by memory, place and perception – and explore psychogeographical and phenomenological techniques that reveal the uncanny mysteries of everyday life, using memory, imagination, walking and close attention as creative tools. Through practical exercises, we will experiment with ways of transforming lived experience into a compelling narrative, discussing writers who blur fiction and non-fiction to reveal aspects of the self, including B. S. Johnson, M. John Harrison, Lara Pawson, Robert Walser, and Jacquetta Hawkes. Finally, (weather permitting!) we will venture outdoors to seek inspiration and connection through topographical and sensory prompts.
About the tutor
Gareth E. Rees is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. His books include Sunken Lands (Elliott & Thompson 2024), Terminal Zones (Influx Press 2022), Car Park Life (Influx Press 2019) and The Stone Tide (Influx Press, 2018). His first book, Marshland was nominated for the Gordon Burn prize and reissued in 2024 in a new expanded edition. Rees’s psychogeographic travelogue, Unofficial Britain was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and listed as one of Sunday Times' 'Best Books of the Year' in 2020. His short stories have been selected for Best British Stories 2023 (Salt Publishing) and The Best of British Fantasy 2019 (Newcon Press). He lives in Hastings with his wife and children.