Writing Fiction From Life with Kavita Bedford

How can your writing make compelling fiction inspired by real-life events and relationships? Join Kavita Bedford, author of the critically acclaimed novel Friends & Dark Shapes, for a workshop on how to draw from personal perspectives to shape fiction and characters.

In this writing course, we will discuss some non-fiction literary forms, such as memoir, auto-fiction, and creative non-fiction, and the differences between them. Then we’ll explore using elements of those literary forms in fiction, to bring personal experiences to life in a fictional way.

We will look at different literary devices and ways to create a unique literary voice, exploring how the wrestling back of narratives and telling one’s truth can serve as a political act. We will look at your environment and how you can draw from place, conversation and the elements that make you distinctly you. The course will draw from examples of modern writers who create stylised personal perspectives, including Natalia Ginzburg, Jenny Offill, Helen Garner and Bryan Washington.

Kavita Bedford is an Australian-Indian writer with a background in journalism, anthropology and literature. Her novel, Friends & Dark Shapes, was published in 2021 in Australia, USA, and Italy and was Shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, 2021, The NSW Premiers’ New Fiction, and Small Press Network’s Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including Guernica, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, ABC Arts, Roads & Kingdoms, and Island Magazine. She was a recent Churchill Fellow exploring migrant narratives between Australia and Europe.