Reading the Room: Creative writing, attention, and democracy in the classroom

Description

What happens when we lose the spaces where people sit together and practice thinking collectively?

For 25 years, Julia Bell has taught creative writing to working adults at Birkbeck, University of London. In her new book Between the Lines: Life Lessons from the Creative Writing Workshop (Simon & Schuster, May 2026), she argues that the writing workshop is one of the last spaces where we practice collective attention, empathy, and democratic thinking in an age of algorithmic isolation.

Written in live-action classroom scenes rather than craft instruction, the book places readers inside the room as a Kosovan refugee writes about frozen ready meals sent to her camp, as an online troll learns empathy through a vampire story, as a Black British student is told to ‘write what she knows’ and refuses to stay in her box. In an age of distraction and polarisation, Bell shows how workshops nurture sustained attention and understanding and create spaces where people can come together to think across their differences.

For this online event, marking the publication of Between the Lines: Life Lessons from the Creative Writing Workshop (Simon & Schuster, May 2026) Julia Bell, Professor of New Writing at Birkbeck, University of London will be in conversation with novelist Dr Doug Cowie, Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, both at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Period	11 May 2026
Held at	The English Association
Degree of Recognition	National