The poor, by the way: Working-class Critical Writing with Maria Fusco

Course Summary

“The poor, by the way. Means the earth and all the creatures that live upon it, the always-with-us.” Night Philosophy, Fanny Howe

Drawing on your own lived experience, this one-day online course, for all levels of writers, will introduce and discuss techniques to turn your thoughts and observations into new critical writing through focussing on the characteristics, images and experiences of being working-class. Forms that we will be looking at will include the lyric essay and the researched memoir.

Course Outline

Participants will focus on the specific characteristics of working-class writing, with an emphasis on critical and expanded forms of writing, such as the lyric essay and the researched memoir.

This course is for participants who self-identify as being working-class, or from working-class backgrounds, obviously this is a broad and often intersectional spectrum of people, everyone is welcome!

It is not necessary for participants to submit work in advance of the course.

A small selection of required reading will be provided for participants in advance of the course, and a list of further reading too, for when the course has ended.

There will be practical exercises and conversation throughout the duration of the course, but due to time constraints individual feedback cannot be given to participants.

Course Outcomes

Participants will take away from this course a more nuanced and confident approach to the use of their own lived experience as working-class individuals into their writing. They will be equipped in some tailored writing techniques, as well as addressing some the inherent socio-ethical issues of writing in this way.

Maria Fusco is a working-class writer from Belfast. Her latest two works (both 2023) are History of the Present an opera-film about the legacies of the Belfast peacelines, co-directed with Margaret Salmon and Who does not envy with is against us, a book of essays about working-class-ness as method. She has taught courses at Arvon and Faber Academy and is currently Professor of Interdisciplinary Writing at the University of Dundee. mariafusco.net