This workshop is a space for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creatives to come together and write about our joy. The workshop will provide writers with all levels of experience a toolkit of exercises to explore writing about happiness.

There will be a series of short free-writing exercises which will allow participants to experiment with writing about joy from different perspectives and angles. All the exercises will be low pressure and it will be a very safe and supportive environment to encourage creativity around a topic many writers shy away from so please do come along, even if you’ve never been to a writing workshop before!

Keep in touch with Writing Happiness on Twitter @disabledjoy

This event is BSL interpreted and Captioned and will take place on Zoom.

This event is part of WOW UK Festival 2022, our week-long digital programme of groundbreaking In Conversations and interactive workshops.

For this year’s festival, we are offering audiences the chance to pay what they can, with tickets for events starting from £1. If you’re able to pay a higher ticket price, your contribution will include a donation to help WOW continue its work fighting for gender equality all year-round.

WOW London’s in person festival takes place at Southbank Centre from 11-13 March. Check out the line-up here.

Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring happiness from an underrepresented perspective and the power of writing to support mental health. Elspeth is currently working on her debut novel and also regularly facilitates accessible creative workshops. Her prose has been shortlisted for Canongate's Nan Shepherd prize and Penguin's Write Now Editorial programme and is supported by Creative Scotland. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can usually be found near the sea or spending time with her elderly dog.

Rachel Lewis is a poet and facilitator living with mental illness. Her poetry interrogates and celebrates family, friendship, community and recovery. Her first pamphlet on eating disorder recovery, ‘Three degrees of separation’, was published in 2019 by Wordsmith HQ. She is currently writing a second collection exploring grief and belonging through her family's links to the Belfast Jewish community, and running a newsletter exploring the work of poetry. She regularly facilitates accessible creative writing workshops and is a current Barbican Young Poet. She can be found at @rachel_lewis_poet on instagram and twitter.