I’m really excited to be teaching five different creative writing courses next year (2025-26) and all of these short courses will be taught online, so that means anyone, from anywhere, could sign up! One of these creative writing courses will be aimed at fellow neurodivergent writers. If that’s you, and you’re interested in reflecting on your own experience of neurodiversity through writing, then keep on reading… I’ll be posting more details about the other four courses very soon!

For context, my debut collection Octopus Mind contains several poems that reflect on my experience of being diagnosed with dyspraxia as an adult. The process of writing these poems was a strange one. In many ways, I found it therapeutic. But they also helped me to explore the uncanny and surreal aspects of re-adjusting my perspective of myself, and of the world. Playing with language (something I have been doing for my entire life) became a useful tool for me to tease out various thoughts, memories and ideas. Not only that, I have become more and more interested in the work of other neurodivergent writers, and soon found that I was inadvertently gathering poems and snippets of experience to pass on to others, in the form of the following course:

Writing Neurodiversity: Processing Lived Experience through Poetry (10 Weeks, from 27th January)

10 Weekly Tuesday evening workshops, 7-9pm

This online course will offer a safe and supportive space in which to explore, articulate, process and reflect on your own neurodivergent experience, using poetry as a therapeutic tool. We will respond to negative experiences and stereotypes, but we will also celebrate our neurodivergent strengths, playing with language and poetic techniques to express what it means to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world. The course is open to anyone who has (or who thinks they might have) lived experience of neurodivergence (diagnosed, self-diagnosed, or undiagnosed). It will be taught via a series of weekly 2-hour workshops delivered online via Teams.

We will examine several texts written by neurodivergent writers, including Kate Fox, Jane Burn, Esther Ottaway, and Oz Hardwick, with a focus on the following topics:

• The neurodivergent journey – diagnosis / self-diagnosis
• Reflecting on childhood memories
• Understanding our own unique neurodivergence
• Communicating lived experience to others
• Celebrating our neurodivergent strengths
• Responding to stigma and stereotypes

Throughout the course, we will experiment with various writing tools (including humour, word-play, and poetic form) as a means of expressing and articulating neurodivergent lived experience, and we will use ekphrasis (responding to visual prompts) as a catalyst for reflection.

Visit the Cardiff University Lifelong Learning website for more details, and to book your place.

Please note: You may be eligible for a ‘fee-waiver’ place on this course, e.g. if you have a disability or are in receipt of certain benefits – check here for details

I have listed the details of the other four creative writing courses on my EVENTS page, and will publish another blog post when these courses become available for booking. You can also read testimonials on this page, from people who have attended previous workshops.