How Should A Writer Be? – Examining The Influence Of The Literary It Girl
Sat, 15 Mar
|Google Meets


Time & Location
15 Mar 2025, 16:00 – 18:00 GMT
Google Meets
About The Event
Literary It girls have been having a moment, from coverage of contemporary authors criticising or praising the It girl’s je ne sais quoi to deep dives into the lives of those like joan didion and eve babitz. Sophia June in NYLON defined the new class of literary It girls as “savvy writers who are redefining what it means to market a book — and in doing so, tackling the challenges of self-presentation that every artist faces,” while Joshua Taylor in Off Chance Mag has dutifully warned against buying into the “myth of the writer” without caution.
How does one separate the myth from reality? Are young writers doomed to be dismissed for their looks, their social life and their instagram accounts? In the face of this, how do we navigate the world of publishing and build a writing career?
Join Elle Nash and Sophia Hembeck for a two hour workshop full of focused discussion, writing exercises and a curated reading list on the subject of the literary It girl. There will be lots of room to discuss how to build a community / audience around your writing, as well.
Includes:
focused discussion examining the role and identity of the ‘Literary It Girl’
in-class writing exercises
an exclusive recommended reading list
expert advice on reaching your audience authentically
Q&A session with Elle Nash and Sophia Hembeck who will discuss how they built their own writing platforms
About your instructors:
Elle Nash is a British-American author and editor celebrated for her unflinching exploration of desire, identity, and the human psyche. Her debut novel, Animals Eat Each Other (2018), was featured in O – The Oprah Magazine and praised by Publishers Weekly as a “complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.”
Nash’s subsequent works include the short story collection Nudes (2021), the novella Gag Reflex (2022), and the novel Deliver Me (2023), which was nominated for fiction book of the year by the Saltire Society, Scotland’s national book awards. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, BOMB, Literary Hub, Cosmopolitan, MsLexia, The Spectator, Columbia Journal, Southwest Review, and New York Tyrant.
Beyond her writing, Nash is an editor at The Creative Independent and runs a book club on her Substack. She was a founding editor of the now-shuttered Witch Craft Magazine and has served as a fiction editor at various literary magazines since 2014. Nash resides in Glasgow, Scotland, where she is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing with a research focus on female rage, and continues to contribute to the literary community through her writing, editing, and teaching.
Sophia Hembeck is a writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh. She has authored a trilogy of essay collections: Things I Have Noticed (2020), Things I Have Loved (2023), and the forthcoming Things I Have Changed (2025).
Hembeck holds a M.A. in playwriting and dramaturgy from the University of Arts in Berlin and her work delves into themes of love, longing, and self-worth, often exploring the process of finding one's own voice.
In addition to her publications, Sophia offers essay writing classes and writes a weekly Substack newsletter titled The Muse Letter.
She is represented by Zoe Martin from JE Literary Agency in Berlin.
Tickets
General Admission
£39.00+£0.98 service fee
Total
£0.00