Writing Co-Lab

Do you want to experience more freedom? Do you want to contribute in a meaningful way to a more just society? Can the simple acts of reading, gathering in community, and discussing ideas, help achieve those objectives? Yes yes yes. Welcome to The Body Liberation Reading Group, where we will begin or extend the process of setting our bodies free from messages and restrictions often planted there without our full awareness and consent. We will read, we will engage with what arises, and we will emerge with a little bit more space, generosity, and love towards our tender bodies.

Many people have expressed the idea that if we want to bring more liberation to the world, we must first look inside ourselves. As Audre Lorde said: “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us.” Considering our bodies – the physical feelings and emotions they contain, and the ideas that have been projected onto them – is a potent starting place for this inquiry.

In this reading group we will meet over Zoom for six sessions, every two weeks, to discuss three books (two sessions on each book). Through thoughtful and structured discussions, we will explore how we can embody and integrate the liberatory ideas those books express. While we will examine craft as a vehicle for ideas, this is not a workshop, and it’s more than a book club. It’s a site for encountering ourselves that requires active participation, respect, and loving attention.

About the Instructor

Nancy Rawlinson is freelance developmental editor and writing coach with over twenty years of experience helping writers express themselves, understand their process, and publish their work. She works with writers at all stages of their careers, from beginners to bestsellers. Nancy has an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia and has attended several writing residencies. She lives in Brooklyn with her two sons. You can find her at www.nancyrawlinson.com

Student Testimonials

• “Nancy has an uncanny gift of being able to see straight into the heart of a story.”
• “I don’t think of Nancy as an editor/coach as much as I think of her as a literary mystic.”
• “Working with Nancy was an exceptionally productive, supportive, and educational experience.”
• “I have not, in my career as a teacher or as a writer, met an editor more compassionate and brilliant than Nancy Rawlinson. She is a teacher and a visionary.”