Ekaterina Nenakhova

“The body as the main character”
Discussion of the novel “Look at You” and writing workshop

Ekaterina Nenakhova is a young writer and musician from Moscow. She completed the WLAG basic course and two stages of the “Writing about yourself” course by Oksana Vasyakina, was published in the independent zine “Somewhere”, runs the telegram channel “Katiroks”. At the end of August, she released her debut novel “Look at Yourself” about eating disorders, fatphobia and body trauma. The book was published by samizdat: publishing houses refused to print it because of the q***ness of the main character. At the meeting we will talk together with its author about creation, structure and fate of the novel.

Part 2

“You have a novel about the body, but you write it with your head”: this is what my mentor Oksana Vasyakina told me when she read the first draft “Look at Yourself.”

It’s really difficult to write about you without judgment. But this can be learned through practice – and we will do it at this workshop. Let’s do a few exercises that will help us describe emotions in a new way and step away from rationalization when writing a story. We will also try to hear our body and give it voice.