Everything is Material: Writing from Lived Experience with Uju Asika
Draw from your lived experiences to craft rich and compelling stories from both the ordinary and extraordinary moments.
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Discover how every moment — ordinary or extraordinary — can spark powerful writing.
Through creative prompts and writing exercises, you will experiment with form (e.g. letter, blog post, lyrics, essays) and draw inspiration from writers like Maya Angelou, Matt Haig and Lily Allen. With the central theme ‘everything is material’, you will draw from your lived experiences to craft rich and compelling stories from both the ordinary and extraordinary moments.
This workshop will also explore questions around ethics, boundaries, the slippery nature of truth, and how to create a safe container for you and your story.
This is a great opportunity to try your hand at a new form or to learn key techniques from narrative non-fiction, life writing, fiction, drama and poetry that will add vibrancy and depth to your own writing style. You’ll come away with an abundance of story ideas, along with a short piece of writing to develop as a standalone or as the spark for a longer project.
Uju Asika
Uju Asika is a multi-award nominated blogger, speaker, creative writing mentor, and author of three acclaimed books. Her debut Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World was an Evening Standard *Best Books* pick, hailed as ‘timely and important’. Uju’s picture book A World For Me And You is published in the UK and North America, and her latest book Raising Boys Who Do Better: A Hopeful Guide for a New Generation earned praise from Rob Delaney, Julia Samuel, Jeffrey Boakye and Eve Rodsky.
A former journalist, Uju has also been a screenwriter for some of Nigeria’s spiciest TV dramas. Her work and writing has featured widely in the media (e.g. The Observer, Woman’s Hour, Good Housekeeping) and she is frequently booked as a speaker and workshop facilitator. In 2025, Uju was the Judging Chair for the Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction and also a judge for The Week Jr Book Awards. Learn more at ujuasika.com and follow Uju @babesabouttown on social media.
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