Body of the Book with Lidia Yuknavitch — thirteen weeks beginning September 8th


Body of the Book with Lidia Yuknavitch — thirteen weeks beginning September 8th
Body of the Book
with Lidia Yuknavitch
Begins September 8th, 2025 — 13 weekly sessions over Zoom Mondays from 4pm-6pm Pacific
Do you have a draft of a book-length manuscript on your hands? Body of the Book is for those who are looking for deep feedback on a manuscript of fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid. In an intimate group of just six writers (plus Corporeal’s own Lidia Yuknavitch) we will work online together for thirteen weeks; each participant will have four rounds of feedback on up to 30 pages of material, with two participants’ work being discussed each round.
Four rounds of feedback is a book, baby! Which is why this is a rigorous collaborative effort meant for those who want to finish a book. Therefore, to apply, you should have a full draft of your work already written, and you will be asked to include a chapter (up to 15 pages) as well as a brief summary of how you envision your book as of now. We, of course, will not hold you to it—books evolve.
While you will be sending a sample of your work with your application, moreso than anything else what we are looking for is to put together a group of projects that we feel will play off each other’s strengths and idiosyncrasies.
This lab requires a 13 week commitment to yourself and to the writers you work with. (12 weeks of deep diving, plus an introductory meeting to get to know one another and one another’s projects.)
Academia isn’t for every mammal, and traditional critique models don’t work for all writers. Corporeal Writing’s Body of the Book is for mammals who dare to try the manuscript “workshop” differently. This is an anti-workshop: a collaborative art making process. An art making process that relies on every member of the group’s participation every week. Participation that looks like helping one another see the patterns at work in their material, helping them hunt for hidden metaphors, pointing out distinct rhythms and repetition and images, and supporting the writers in daring to develop them further, in the ways that other workshops insist on plot, narrative, and action. The Body Of The Book is for the writing mammal who dares to do workshop differently and then takes it to the page in their work.
Limited to 6 participants. We get that schedule snafus happen, but please understand this process works best with everyone in the space together. Please refrain from applying if you look at your schedule and already know you would have to miss more than one or two meetings.
COST:
There are three payment tiers available for Body of the Book. If you are able to contribute at a higher tier, you will be making it possible for someone to join at a different one.
$2000.00 — Tier I
$2250.00 — Tier 2
$2500.00 — Tier 3
APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 15th. A 50% deposit will be due upon acceptance, with the balance due by the end of October. (Different payment plans can be worked out for those in need. Unfortunately, due to the significant labor involved, Body of the Book is one of the only Corporeal Writing offerings for which we do not offer scholarships.)
Email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com with questions. Please click the button below to Apply!
Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the short story collection Verge (Riverhead Books), the novels Thrust (Riverhead Books), The Book of Joan (Harper Books), The Small Backs of Children (Harper Books), and Dora: A Headcase (Hawthorne Books), and the anti-memoir The Chronology of Water (Hawthorne Books). Her new novel Thrust (Riverhead Books) is out now. Her TED Talk "On the Beauty of Being a Misfit" has received over 3 million views, and spawned The Misfit Manifesto (TED Books/Simon and Schuster). She lives and collaborates in Portland, Oregon at Corporeal Writing. She is a very good swimmer.