When it comes to turning life into art, where is the line between truth and fiction? And how do we navigate the tensions between telling a good story and being faithful to the facts?
Together, we’ll analyse extracts from a number of different examples to look at the many different ways authors navigate this tricky territory while writing from life.
Part of NCW Academy
Octavia Bright
Octavia Bright is a writer, presenter and broadcaster. She co-hosted Literary Friction, the literary podcast and NTS Radio show, with Carrie Plitt. She presents programmes for BBC R4 including World Book Café and Open Book, and hosts literary events for bookshops, publishers and festivals – such as Cheltenham Literature Festival and events for The Southbank Centre. Her writing has been published in many places, including the White Review, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Wasafiri, Stylist, The Guardian and the Sunday Times. She has a PhD from UCL where she wrote about hysteria and desire in Spanish cinema. Her first book, This Ragged Grace, was published by Canongate in 2023.
