Literary non-fiction

What draws writers to write about themselves? How might memoirs, diaries, letters and other kinds of self-reflective writing enable us to explore issues beyond the individual lives that they chronicle?







We'll look at the interesting and innovative (and sometimes obsessive) ways in which writers have documented their experiences, identities and travels, exploring what it means to share the most intimate parts of our experience with others.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Adventurous, brave, inspirational and tough! But you don’t have to be! Travel with these four amazing women on their immensely challenging journeys through wild terrains. See the landscapes through their careful descriptions, experience the cultures through their close observations, and meet the people through their intense curiosity, but also glimpse their strength – mental and physical – which made these writings possible.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

With environmental degradation, climate change and an alarming increase in the loss of species, nature writing has become an important and exciting genre. Different in style and subject, some of these books will take you on emotional and geographical journeys to explore the wonder of the natural forms and species of the deserts of California, the mountains of the Dolpo region of Nepal and the Canadian Arctic while others will examine the beauty, impact and intrinsic value of wildness. Authors include Robert Macfarlane, Peter Matthiessen and Helen Macdonald.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Explore the extraordinarily diverse world of writing about motherhood, looking at literary texts that have firmly rebuked any notions of motherhood as ‘merely’ domestic, and have instead made it the subject of serious literary writing, have explored major themes such as the body, trauma, gender, queerness, race and creativity, and have written diverse truths about the realities of motherhood. Writers include Toni Morrison, Adrienne Rich and Rachel Cusk, Maggie Nelson and Ayò¿bámi Adébáyò¿.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.