Masterclass: Dr Lucy Burns, 'Writing Shame: Navel Gazing, Subversion, and Subterfuge'
This event is hosted in collaboration with the Feminist Thinking Seminars, organised by students reading for the MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programme. Lucy Burns will also deliver a public lecture—‘Writing Abortion: Reflections on Larger than an Orange’—on Tuesday, 25th February, at 5:30 pm.

In her award-winning debut, Larger than an Orange (Chatto & Windus, 2021), Lucy Burns interweaves diary entries, poetic prose, and literary fragments to document her experience of undergoing an abortion. The book spans the days leading up to the procedure and the months following, capturing this life event’s physical, emotional, and psychological complexities while remaining resolutely pro-choice.

In this interactive masterclass, Lucy Burns draws on her experiences of struggling to write about abortion for the first time.

Participants are invited to read the opening chapter of Melissa Febos, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative (2022) in preparation for an informal discussion on the challenges of writing about shame and trauma.

The masterclass will conclude with a series of writing exercises based on strategies Lucy used to write the first drafts of her memoir, Larger than an Orange (2021). Participants do not need to prepare anything for these writing exercises, and there’ll be no expectation to share writing produced during the masterclass.

This event will be introduced and moderated by Josephine Rosman.

Preparatory Reading:

Participants are invited to read the opening chapter of Melissa Febos, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative (2022) in preparation for an informal discussion on the challenges of writing about shame and trauma. Successful registrants will be sent the chapter one week before the masterclass.

Speaker Details:

Dr Lucy Burns (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Prose at Liverpool John Moores University. Her first book, Larger than an Orange, was published by Chatto & Windus in 2021. It was named a 2021 Sunday Times Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2022 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. Lucy is currently working on a creative non-fiction book about the US liberal arts college, Black Mountain College.

Josephine Rosman (she/her) is a graduate of Oberlin College. She is currently reading for an MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the portrayal of female friendship in modern and contemporary women’s literature and feminist theory.

Further Details and Contacts:

This in-person event is free and open to all; however, registration is required. There are only 25 spaces available. Spaces will be confirmed one week before the event.

This event will not be recorded.
Date: 25 February 2025, 14:00
Venue: Levett Room; accessibility information: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/venue/seminar-rooms/
Speaker: Dr Lucy Burns (Liverpool John Moores University)
Organising department: Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Organisers: Dr Eleri Anona Watson (University of Oxford), Oxford Centre for Life Writing
Organiser contact email address: eleri.watson@ell.ox.ac.uk
Host: Oxford Centre for Life Writing
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/masterclass-writing-shame-nazel-gazing-subversion-and-subterfuge
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Eleri Watson