Survive Your Story: Expressive Writing for Release and Recovery with Shawna Ayoub (via Zoom)

Difficult experiences can become lodged in our bodies in ways that impact us daily, and writing is a way to name, release and even recover from those experiences. Expressive writing allows us to make sense and meaning; to recraft the struggle and better reflect our truth. In other words, it supports you in surviving your story.

This course is structured in two parts. In the first, we come together as a group for a two-hour Zoom session to discuss the what and how of safe expressive writing practices followed by exercises and a take-home writing assignment. For the second part, you will connect directly with your instructor, if you choose, to share your writing and schedule a one-on-one, confidential response and conversation about your writing goals.

Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 12 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.