Meet Our Tutors: Holly Dawson

Holly Dawson is a Sussex-based writer and editor, whose first book All Of Us Atoms, a collection of memoir-ish essays, was published by Canongate in May 2025. Since 2018, she has been Reader in Residence at Charleston, where she runs workshops, courses and literary events. Her acclaimed plays, drawing on Bloomsbury diaries and letters, have been performed by actors including Helena Bonham Carter, Miranda Richardson and Jonathan Pryce. She teaches on our Life Writing Programme. Here she talks about her writing life.

When do you first remember wanting to be a writer? It’s a cliché, but I’ve been writing since I could write. I was lucky enough to have a family that loved books and stories and the imagination, so it was always part of life. My mum got me a little red plastic desk when I was about four and I would sit and write poems and stories. At school, I had certain teachers who supported and encouraged it. At 14, I announced in a careers lesson I wanted to be a writer and was told it “wasn’t a proper job” (so I rebelled and did a presentation about becoming a funeral embalmer). I kept on writing through my teens and twenties, until I fell into freelance journalism and copywriting by accident, which I’ve done ever since. So I guess it became a “proper job” after all.

Your first book All of us Atoms was published by Canongate earlier last year. What inspired you to write this collection of memoir-ish essays? // Could you tell us about its route to publication? At first, I didn’t know it was a book. I was speaking to Canongate about a novel, and said ‘In the meantime, here’s some little pieces so you can get a sense of my style and themes’. They were all pieces that had begun in my diary (which I’ve been writing since I was 11). It’s how I make sense of things, big and small. I have always slipped, without intending to, between first, second and third person in my diary, weaving fact with imagination, what happened with what could have happened and didn’t happen. It’s just how I naturally process things. I was surprised when Canongate thought there was a book there. I’m so grateful they were open to taking a risk on something that didn’t fit any traditional genre or structure.

The audible version is read by Helena Bonham Carter, who described your book as ‘raw, brave and compelling’. How did you find writing this very personal story and putting it out there in the world? It’s funny – I don’t think of it as ‘brave’ or even particularly personal. I just know it came from my bones. At the time, I was having a health wobble, which had the potential to limit my life. There’s no better motivation and clarity than mortality. I felt that if I only had one shot to get a book out, I wanted it to be fully and accurately ‘me’ – something I’d be happy to leave behind. Some people have described it as a loveletter to my children, and I suppose, in that sense, it is. After it came out, I basically forgot about it. I’d written what I’d wanted to, got it out of me, and moved on. I feel it belongs to readers now, not me.

What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? And the most enjoyable? I can’t think of anything challenging, because writing is a constant learning process, and any stuckness or trickiness always results in breakthrough and growth. Any problems I’m having with my writing are joyous problems that I’m incredibly privileged to have. I never take it lightly that I’ve had this chance to do something with my writing. I am keenly aware, every time I pick up a pen, that millions of people – both now, and before me – are censored, persecuted, exiled, imprisoned, murdered, for daring to express themselves and have a voice. Linked to this – the most enjoyable aspect is the giddy feeling of freedom within myself when I write, and the knowledge it is a freedom I am so lucky to have.

You have taught our Life Writing Programme for a number of years. How does teaching impact your own writing process? Teaching for 15 years means I’ve been a student for 15 years. It’s an essential part of my own practice and growth. I learn more from my students than they do from me. It’s a constant source of inspiration, insight, and community. Every class nourishes me, expands me, challenges me, changes me. Plus, let’s be honest – without teaching, I’d be completely broke and would barely leave the house!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given about writing? I have a coven of writers in my head who keep me going, and whose writing I turn to for guidance again and again. Virginia Woolf is definitely in there – her diaries are full of advice. Grace Paley is another brilliant source of wisdom – in particular her ‘Six Lies’ which emphasise the importance of writing from and for yourself. Helene Cixous’ books on writing are invaluable. And there are essays I return to regularly – Ursula LeGuin’s ‘Carrier Bag Theory’, Shirley Jackson’s ‘Memory and Delusion’, Audre Lorde’s ‘Transformation of Silence’, and James Baldwin’s insights in The Paris Review (in fact, TPR in general is a constant source of help).

You’re marooned on a desert island with the complete works of Shakespeare and a religious text of your choice. What fiction book do you want to have with you? And would you prefer a notebook and pen, or laptop to write with? Definitely a notebook and pen! Specifically an A5 plain paper Moleskine please. I always write by hand, then type it up and edit on the laptop. But to think and write, I need a pen. The Desert Island book is such a tough choice – but I’d probably say Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. I’ve read it a million times, and get something different out of it with every read.

What’s on your reading list right now? What isn’t on my reading list! The TBR pile gets bigger every day. So much of my work involves reading - finding interesting texts for students, diversifying my teaching materials, deep-diving on particular authors for workshops, articles and plays, and there’s always non-fiction books on the go to aid my own research. I’m currently re-reading Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’ (which should be a set text for everyone if we stand a chance of creating a better world), and I’ve just finished an immersive month of reading everything by Fernando Pessoa. I want to get stuck into Balle’s ‘On The Calculation of Volume’ series next (late to the party, I know).

What are you working on at the moment? Well, the novel that has undergone many iterations over the past ten years is finally done and with an agent, so fingers crossed for that. In the meantime, I’m knee-deep in research for the next book (creative non-fiction) about gender, queerhood, society – and axes. I always have at least one project on the go. I don’t think I’d survive life without it.

Holly Dawson (and Joy Persaud) teach our two-year Life Writing Programme which starts at the end of September and is aimed at writers wanting to explore memoir and creative non-fiction more generally. If you’re interested in joining them, we’re running a taster session on 11 September.