文｜李梓新

我認識Melissa 是在2023年7月，英國利茲城的西邊，女性主義和靈性色彩濃厚的Hepton Bridge小鎮。一群膚色各異的寫作者在英國著名詩人Ted Hughes的舊居聚會。Melissa引起我的注意是她的姓氏Wan, 結合她略帶黑色的頭發，我一下子就斷定她有華人血統。

果然，她說她爸爸是英國人，媽媽來自香港，她出生在曼徹斯特。Wan究竟指代哪個漢字，她也不清楚。后來我們一起破案了，我寫出幾個漢字給她辨認，她選擇了"溫"字——她還記得媽媽給她寫過的筆劃。盡管在身份證上還是父親的姓氏，但寫作的筆名，她決定用母姓。

Melissa偶爾需要拄拐，她的腿腳明顯有些不方便，多發性硬化癥（MS），一種影響中樞神經系統的慢性疾病使她的平衡功能受損，腿部也出現萎縮。在這種情況下，以全獎獎學金及Distinction優等學位從UEA小說創意寫作研究生畢業后，她還是堅持繼續就讀利茲大學博士學位，研究小說中的性寫作及其和殘疾的交集: Making the absent present: Disability, textual erasure and (not) writing sex。這是她的論文題目。

研究Writing Sex in Fiction是她在UEA時期發展出來的興趣。她和同學主辦了一次名為"I Will Show You Mine"的研討會，談及研究源起，他們這樣寫道：

Why Sex Writing?

Sex is not something easily written about in fiction. Very often the act is reduced to a paragraph break or so dressed up in elaborate metaphor that you can barely find it. And in our internet age, sex has become permeated by the language of pornography or drenched in cliché which does little to get us any closer to what it's all about.

We believe the task of literature is to break down clichés and reveal something new about the world in which we live. So how can we, as writers, write sex in a way that reveals something true? How do ideas of shame, normalcy and representation affect our reading of sex-writing? What can we, as readers, writers and thinkers do to create a more sex-positive environment in literature? How does one technically approach the writing of sex, particularly outside of mainstream representations and traditional publishing?

這一次，我邀請她來第一次面向全球寫作者開設Writing Sex and Intimacy in Fiction 的工作坊。

Writing Sex and Intimacy

In these three writing workshops we will unpick the writing of sex and intimacy in fiction, thinking not only about language and form but also about the politics of bringing sex to the page. Some of the themes we will cover include desire and domesticity, fantasy and pornography, writing sex from lived experience and linear narratives of orgasm. Workshops will be split into two; the first half will involve close reading and discussion of novel extracts or short stories which write sex, including work by the workshop tutor, and in the second half we will focus on writing exercises, generating writing and thinking about the techniques of craft.

Syllabus

Workshop 1

The language of writing sex in English-language fiction: use of dialogue, interior monologue, implicit and explicit language, the use of metaphor or abstraction

Time：Apr 5th (Saturday) 20:00-22:00 (Beijing Time)

Workshop 2

Playing with perspective: what difference does it make when writing sex in first, third – close third v omniscient – or second person?

Time: Apr 12th (Saturday) 20:00-22:00 (Beijing Time)

Workshop 3

Writing from life – how to mine personal experience when writing sex, how to protect oneself and others, the politics of writing sex

Time: Apr 19th (Saturday) 20:00-22:00 (Beijing Time)

Breakdown of each workshop

20:00 – 20:40 – Introduction and Close reading

20:40 – 20:50 – BREAK

20:50 – 21:30 – Writing Exercises

21:30 – 21:40 – BREAK

21:40 – 22:00 – Editing and Close

This is an online course conducted in English withZoom.

Every workshop will assign creative writing homework, which in the end of the workshop will come into a full essay of 1,000 to 1,500 words.

Fees:￥1,599

No refund available after the first class begins.

Melissa Wan

Melissa Wan is the author of This Must Be Earth, published by Nightjar Press. Her short fiction has been published by independent presses, including Bluemoose Books, Dead Ink Books, Salt and Cōnfingō Publishing. She was awarded the Crowdfunded Writers’ Scholarship to study Creative Writing at UEA, and her practice research PhD at the University of Leeds looks at the writing of sex and its intersection with disability.

- MA Creative Writing: Prose Fiction, University of East Anglia (2018 – 19), Distinction

- MA Paris Studies, University of London Institute in Paris (2012 – 13), Distinction

- BA (Hons) Social Sciences, University of Manchester (2009 – 12), First Class

Learn More：

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• （English）（每月）

• 大師工作坊

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• （English, upcoming 2025/05）

• 類型小說

• （upcoming 2025/03）

• Feminism/Sex in Fiction Writing （English, upcoming 2025/04）

非虛構 Non-Fiction

• （每月16-30號）

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• (English, Mar- Jun/ 2025)

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詩歌 Poetry

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每日書 Daily Writing Community

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• 共寫班（每月）

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• 英文班（每季度一次）

線下活動 In-Person Events

• 寫作聚會（北京/上海）不定期舉行

• 在地寫作 Writing Retreat

• （2017 上海）

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