Writing Sex with Kris Kneen
This 8-week online masterclass is for writers who want to write about sensuality and sexuality with ease. Kris Kneen is the perfect guide to help you navigate the pleasures and pain of writing sex into your fiction, memoir or poetry collection.
Applications will open in May 2025
Dates: 6pm - 8pm, Wednesdays 6 August - 24 September 2025
Fees: $1250 or $1200 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront.
Applications close: 5pm (AEST) Wednesday 2 July 2025
Places: 8 participants will be selected
Sex is such a fundamentally important part of life and yet so many writers avoid the subject. Perhaps it is because so many writers get it wrong. If you are wanting to write an erotic thriller, a book where sex is central to the story, or if you are just having trouble with the sex scenes in your novel or your memoir, this 8 week online program will help you harness the sensuality of every-day life and write about sensuality and sexuality with ease.
There will be two guest speakers in the program, literary agent Alex Adsett, and writer and scholar of contemporary commercial fiction, Melanie Saward.
In this course we will:
Explore the language of sensual and sexual expression
Look at differing ways of approaching the sexual act
Examine the ethics of consent in fiction
Discuss historical and contemporary literary fiction's relationship to sexuality
Implement and exercise an erotic writing practice
Work on your own sex scene, short erotic fiction or short sexual memoir which will be completed during the course.
Learn the best ways of avoiding a nomination for the bad sex awards
Discuss markets with one of Australia's preeminent literary agents
Discuss the place of sex in commercial fiction with a successful author of commercial fiction
PROGRAM OUTLINE
Wednesday 6 August, Class 1: Sex Writing through the ages - How is sex featured in contemporary literature and memoir
Wednesday 13 August, Class 2: The sensuality of the world - how to use detail to flesh out the sensual nature of a scene
Wednesday 20 August, Class 3. Foreplay - the pacing of good sex writing
Wednesday 27 August, Class 4: The language of sex - the words that we use to describe the act. Q and A with guest presenter.
Wednesday 3 September, Class 5: Pitching your project - planning and starting to use the techniques of sensual and sexual literature
Wednesday 10 September, Class 6: The ethics of sex writing - sex for pleasure vs sex for power in fiction, poetry and memoir. Q and A with guest presenter.
Wednesday 17 September, Class 7: How could it go so wrong - examples of sex that doesn't work on the page and why it doesn't work
Wednesday 24 September, Class 8: Sex with friends - sharing and discussing our work
ABOUT KRIS KNEEN
Kris Kneen has been called the Anais Nin of Australian literature. Their first published work was an erotic memoir, Affection followed closely by a collection of erotic novellas, Triptych and a sex romp The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine. Their Stella Prize shortlisted novel An Uncertain Grace explored the intersection of sex and science from now into the future. Kris is the perfect guide to help you navigate the pleasures and the pain of writing sex into your fiction, memoir or poetry collection.
ABOUT ALEX ADSETT
Alex Adsett is an Australian literary agent and publishing consultant, who has been working in the publishing and bookselling industry for almost twenty five years. She has managed Alex Adsett Literary since 2008.
ABOUT MELANIE SAWARD
Melanie Saward is a proud Bigambul and Wakka Wakka woman. She is a writer, editor, and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich), Queensland. Her debut novel Burn was published by Affirm Press in September 2023 and she’s also had work published in the literary journals Griffith Review, Meanjin, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, and has fiction published in the anthologies Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now, and New Australian Fiction. In 2024, her romantic comedy novel, Love Unleashed, was published by Penguin Random House.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications will open in May 2025
Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with peers and the balance in the group.
Course fees are $1295 or $1200 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront.
Applications close at 5pm on Wednesday 2 July 2025. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their submission by 15 July.
Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 or email amy@varuna.com.au to discuss your application.
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
