Tentacles is a writers’ collective for disabled and chronically ill people.

Come and create in community! Explore creative writing in this masterclass for disabled writers. All levels welcome.

💻This is a HYBRID masterclass; a mix of in-person and online attendance💻

Join Tentacles for creative writing masterclass 'Fragments of The Self'. This masterclass for anyone who considers themself to be d/Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and/or chronically ill. In this workshop, we will find and name our multitudes: the different parts and fragments that make up the whole. We will practise writing from these fragments, leaning into the creative potential of having many selves, each of which might tell the story slightly differently, allowing multiple truths to coexist.

In doing so, we can loosen our attachment to the idea of a singular narrative “I” and to the belief that there must be one definitive truth. We can make space for messiness, contradiction and uncertainty in our narratives, allowing our worst sides, as well as our better sides, to emerge on the page.

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This masterclass will be lead by Tara Singh (they/them) who is a Nairobi-born, Punjabi, queer, disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent poet and facilitator. After leaving medical school in their fourth year of training due to illness, Tara spent more than a decade housebound before turning to poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their work explores the Indian diasporic experience, queerness, gender identity, intergenerational trauma, mental health, disability and belonging.

Tara’s poetry has appeared in several anthologies, and their debut poetry pamphlet, ✹Fr⚘gm∞nts⊗ (Five Leaves Publications, 2025), was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. They co-founded and facilitate at Shaded Writers, a UK Black Pride-funded writing collective for Queer, Trans, Black and People of Colour (QTIBPOC), creating spaces for community, creativity and mutual support. Tara is currently working on their first full-length poetry collection.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” – Song of Myself, 51, Walt Whitman

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Tentacles is run by and for disabled people. We will ask you to provide a few personal details in advance to make sure we can meet your access needs, and if you have any questions, please get in touch with us!

Pricing

We know finances can be a barrier to accessing creative workshops, which is why we’ve set up ticketing as donation based. However, we ask that you consider the guidelines below for how much you pay for this course. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances - you won’t be asked for any proof, we just ask that you are honest. We think it’s important to make workshops accessible for disabled people, and we also believe in valuing disabled people’s work!

0-£6: Discounted rate for those who would struggle to pay the standard workshop fee. For people who frequently stress about meeting basic needs and don’t always achieve them

£7-£15: We think this range fits in the ‘standard fee rate’ and is for folks who stress about meeting basic needs but still regularly achieve them

£16-35: The ‘pay it forward’ rate. For those who want to support initiatives like this and are able to financially do so

If you have a personal support/care assistant and you are planning to attend in person, please book an ‘in person assistant’ ticket for your PA as we need to know how many people are going to be in the room for health and safety reasons.

Description supplied by the event organiser.