Death. Illness. Sex. Gender. Athletics. Aging. To write about these embodied experiences and spaces of physical culture, we cannot ignore or reduce the body. We must engage with it on the page, considering its complications and nuances and leaning into them rather than away.

We talk a lot in literary spaces about “writing the body,” but what does this really mean, and how can we practice it at an advanced level? Writing the body is not just writing about the body, but it is also writing about the meaning of the body, and the ways it determines our experiences. How do we occupy our bodies, what do we do with them, how do we feel in them? What is the relationship between the body and the self? What skills, craft tools, literary instincts, and embodied practices can we use to support our body work as writers?

This four-session generative seminar will ask you to consider how your body appears on the page and will equip you with concrete tools to deepen your engagement with body writing. Our class sessions will be seminars, each including a craft discussion, a prompted writing practice, and conversation with the guest authors. You’ll leave each class with guided work to do on your own throughout the week. This class doesn’t incorporate feedback, but there will be opportunity for brief sharing of work.

This course will take place on Zoom on Tuesdays between November 14 and December 5 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. EST. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterwards. We cannot offer refunds once the course has begun. Please email general@offassignment.com with any questions.

A limited number of scholarships may be available for this course; please send a brief statement outlining how and why a scholarship would impact your ability to attend to general@offassignment.com by October 2 and we’ll get back to you by October 16.

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Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses on in-depth writing topics that harness the perspectives and craft tactics of a lead instructor plus celebrated guest lecturers, such that participating writers gain a wealth of input while benefiting from the cohesive leadership of one renowned writer in a particular niche of nonfiction. Masters’ Series courses also include an additional virtual gathering in which students can mingle with fellow students and meet OA editors.