Thank you so much to our participants and speakers for joining our Creative Writing workshop on “Burnout, Overload, and Resilience,” held at the University of Exeter on June 14, 2024. The event was organised by Prof. Katharine Murphy (Principal Investigator for Reading Bodies), Dr. Sally Flint (Lecturer in Creative Writing), and Dr. Olivia Glaze (AHRC Postdoctoral Researcher) and we were thrilled to welcome such a diverse group to the event – which included teachers, entrepreneurs, NHS practitioners, yoga teachers, a live illustrator, academics, and postgraduate students.
The workshop consisted of two parts. First, Prof. Katharine Murphy (Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature), Dr. Daniele Carrieri (Lecturer in Public Health), and Dr. Kayleigh Darch (Clinical Psychologist and Yoga Teacher) delivered micro-presentations on how these themes manifest within art and culture, health research, and in our own lives. These presentations sparked group discussions on “quiet quitting”, feeling valued, and hustle culture, and served as inspiration for our creative expressions of burnout, overload, and resilience.
In the second half of the event, Dr. Sally Flint led a series of writing activities, encouraging attendees to use imagery and a focus on the five senses—taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound – to kickstart their writing or drawing. Although the weather didn’t allow us to take the activities outside as planned – such is the British summer – many participants found that the sound of rain actually helped their creative process! We would like to thank all the attendees for engaging with the workshop themes with such insight and vulnerability and for producing a fantastic range of micro-fiction, poetry, prose, and drawings.
We eagerly anticipate publishing the submitted pieces in our anthology with Riptide Journal and hope that the attendees enjoyed the workshop as much as we did!
Micro-Presentations on Burnout, Overload, and Resilience
Group Burnout Wordcloud
Creative Writing Sessions
Group Feedback Wordcloud
You can find more details about our workshop programme and open call for submissions below: