This workshop will explore the intersection of dream and memory and use this as a prompt for autobiographical writing.

Suitable for all levels of writing experience.

Freud said that dreams are the ‘royal road to the unconscious’ and the Surrealist artists and poets used this as their map. Taking inspiration from film and memoir writing that engages with dreams, ‘Dreams & the Unconscious’ will explore our own dreams and how they interact with our memories.

The Memories Unearthed workshops explore how to capture fleeting memories in words using various creative writing techniques. We’ll try out techniques to inspire writing about a brief moment in time from our lives. Each workshop is based around prompts from writers and texts which allow participants to explore a memory. We’ll also use images and symbols to unearth stories.

The workshops will suit those who are interested in trying out methods of memoir writing, and those who would like to use writing to help shape or preserve memories. They will also be useful to fiction writers who want to draw on lived experience in their writing. The pieces you develop in each workshop may form the basis of a short piece or threaded together to form part of a long-form project, such as a memoir or novel.

You will have the opportunity to share what you write, but there is no obligation to do so. Feedback is based on the feelings the writing evokes, rather than on style or technique.

The workshops are designed to work either as one-off sessions or as part of a series.

Delaina Haslam is a creative nonfiction writer and a translator. She’s written for arts and entertainment publications in Madrid and London and translates sociology for academic journals. She has also worked with the Poetry Translation Centre translating francophone African poetry. She’s writing a memoir about baby loss and brain disease, memory and loss, extracts of which have been shortlisted for the Northern Debut Award and the Plaza Memoir Prize, and reached the second stage of the Bridport Memoir Prize. Through writing this book, she’s developed techniques that she’s keen to share with others.

The Writers Workshop’s space in Orchard Square, Sheffield, has no step-free access. If you have been excluded from this event due to inaccessibility, please let us know. We are committed to finding fully accessible premises and, in the meantime, making as many of our events available online as possible.

Tea and coffee will be provided during the workshop and refreshments are also available to be purchased from the Waterstones cafe next door (with a discount available for Writers Workshop members who show their digital membership card).

This event is online advance booking only: no walkups on the day.

Refunds: Refunds are not available for this event.

The Writers Workshop is a nonprofit social enterprise on a mission to enable everyone to experience the joy and power of creative writing, both at our venue in Sheffield and online. Members of the Writers Workshop get a discount on all our events and other perks. For more information, visit www.thewritersworkshop.co.uk.

Description supplied by the event organiser.