Join author, university lecturer, and 2024 Stella Prize shortlistee Hayley Singer, in an exploratory workshop to challenge and fuel unusual nonfiction writing that can’t be stuffed in a box or ever called ordinary…

In this intensive workshop, you are invited to write towards something that grips you, shakes you or wakes you up. We will consider the ways nonfiction can unearth, wonder, question or re-imagine what feels urgent, astonishing, glorious or shattering, to create something unusual and extraordinary.

To start, we will examine examples of nonfiction writing that approach the unapproachable, speak the unspoken and uproot what is hidden. Come with an idea or topic that you would like to grow or unpack, smash to smithereens or repair. Hayley will offer prompts that invite you to disassemble and rebuild your topic in, hopefully, unexpected ways.

Together we will reflect on what comes up for you when you challenge what is familiar, and we will consider how you might persist with writing that feels map-less.

Best suited to writers who want to swerve or crack convention at any stage of their writing career, and wish to experiment with form and expectations within nonfiction.

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of examples of unconventional nonfiction writing
• Work through practical writing prompts in a supportive environment
• Gain an understanding for writing as a process of searching, instead of already knowing
• Discuss the process of drafting and re-drafting a work of unconventional nonfiction
• Learn practical tips for holding onto what is untapped, hidden, startling or even mystifying

Members $88 / Non-members $140

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom. Instructions will be emailed to you, please check your spam/junk folders. A recording will be available to registered participants for two weeks after the event.

—Not a Writers SA member? Members receive more than 30% off the full price of this workshop, you’ll also get a free 20 minute consult, expert advice about your career and your work, and join a community of like-minded creatives. Join now for as little as $60! 

—Writers SA members must be logged in to receive the member discount. If you would like to use a workshop credit to book in, please contact [email protected] at least five working days before the workshop commencement date. Our staff don’t work full time and we don’t want you to miss out!

—If you are a member of another state based writers centre, SCBWI SA or Editors SA, please contact [email protected] at least five working days before the program commencement date to get a code for the member price.

—Writers SA provides complimentary membership for First Nations writers and for writers experiencing economic hardship. Please contact [email protected] to redeem.

About Hayley Singer

Hayley writes essays on literature and multispecies death, queer embodiment, strange weather, ignored histories, and on reading and writing as worlds end and begin again. Her first book, Abandon Every Hope: Essays for the dead, was published by Upswell. It has been shortlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize.