On 13 November 2026, I will be speaking at the nawe Conference 2026 Writing Worlds.
My presentation, “Writing Outside Clinical Frameworks: Narrative and Community in RECASAS,” introduces RECASAS, the Berlin-based nonprofit initiative I am developing. RECASAS explores reading, writing and storytelling as community practices for people who are struggling with something and do not want to remain alone with it.
At RECASAS, people are invited to write without having their words assessed or placed within a predetermined story of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. The starting point is to make room for people to find their own language for their experiences. Writing does not have to explain or resolve what has happened. It can remain open, imaginative and unfinished, allowing meanings and perspectives to emerge over time.
Drawing on my experience of facilitating reading and writing groups—and of writing the unpublished memoir that helped save my life—I will consider what becomes possible when people encounter one another first as readers, writers and members of a community. Writing can create room to reflect on an experience, approach it from a different angle and discover language that is not determined by someone else’s interpretation.
Something changes when stories are read and discussed in a group. As we listen to another person’s words, we inevitably encounter parts of our own stories. Through reading, writing and reflecting together, memories, connections and perspectives can emerge that we had not previously recognised. There is a certain magic in discovering something of ourselves in words that began with someone else.
When writing is shared voluntarily and received with care, it can create connection without requiring people to have the same experiences or tell the same kind of story.
nawe Conference 2026 Writing Worlds
Panel: The Business of Writing
Date: 13 November 2026
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Presentation: Writing Outside Clinical Frameworks: Narrative and Community in RECASAS
More information about the conference, including how to register, will be available on the nawe website from the beginning of September.
