Writing the Taboo explores the complicated emotional responses that readers and writers can feel when encountering certain subjects in life-writing.

Audiences can get “turned off” or “triggered” from reading deeply personal details, and authors can also get intimidated by writing highly emotional, violent or intimate life occurrences. Often, these feelings can keep both parties from connecting and communicating in literary and psychological ways. This work will focus on articulating “the ick” experience to engage and transcend social and personal taboos on the page (and in workshops) and to transform what we fear into compassion.

Speaker Details:

Professor Tonya Cherie Hegamin, MFA (she/her), is a queer and (dis)abled award-winning author and educator of Black and Native American (Lenape/Nanticoke) descent. Her honours include awards from the New York Public Library, The Christopher Foundation and more. Her books, Most Loved In All the World, M+O 4EVR, Pemba’s Song and Willow have received honorable mentions and starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, Ebony and Essence. Tonya is a tenured Associate Professor in the English and World Languages Department at the City University of New York’s Medgar Evers College. She also serves as an Affiliate Faculty at CUNY’s School of Medicine in their Narrative Medicine program. Additionally, Tonya holds certificates in Diversity and Inclusion Education, as well as in Wellness Counselling from Cornell University. Tonya has published scholarly articles about creativity, praxis and pedagogy in The Journal of Creative Writing Studies, Can Creative Writing Really be Taught?, and Creative Writing Innovations. Her research interests focus on the intersections of narrative, creativity, cultural history, disability, gender/queer studies and healthcare. Tonya has been a patient and victim advocate since 1998, working as an educator and counsellor for organizations like Women Against Rape, Planned Parenthood, Police Athletic League, J. P. Morgan, and Johnson& Johnson/Janssen Pharmaceutical.

Further Details and Contacts:

This event is free and open to all; however, registration is required. Places are limited, with priority given to those who identify as members of the Global Majority or underrepresented writers (for further information and definitions, please see our ‘Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme’ page).

This event will be recorded and will be available soon after. Registration is not required to access the recording.

Registration will close on 27 May 2025 at 10:30. Successful registrants will be informed soon after.

Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.