Coercive control is endemic and therefore it must be cultural. If 1 in 2 women experience coercive control, it’s in our homes in childhood. How does this affect us? And how do we talk—and write—about it? This 6-part live-recorded, interactive talk series will inspire writers and readers to explore literature about coercive control in wider contexts, including state control, parent/child relationships, historical control, and control in industry and workplace. Guest authors Sahar Delijani, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Winnie M Li, Chimene Suleyman, Kim Moore, and Carla Jenkins, meet with host, author Abigail Tarttelin, to discuss their experiences writing coercive control.
In this episode, debut novelist Carla Jenkins discusses hierarchies and power in the therapist/patient relationship, as represented in her novel FIFTY MINUTES.
Therapy was meant to solve her problems, not make them worse...
Twenty-year-old Dani is desperate to overcome her demons, leave her dead-end job and return to her hard-won place at university. Using her limited earnings, she decides to start seeing a psychotherapist.
Richard Goode is educated, sophisticated and worldly-everything Dani aspires to be. As he intuitively unpicks her self-loathing, Dani assumes the fantasies she's developing about him live only in her head. That is, until things take a shocking turn...
Descending into a maelstrom of twisted desire, manipulation and mistrust, the power struggle between Dani and Richard escalates until she's forced to make a decision she never would have anticipated.
With host Abigail, Carla speaks about the aims of writing coercive control into fiction, how to take care of yourself while writing about difficult subjects, and how our cultural and youth histories of coercive control can frame our adult receptivity to it. She also discusses how easy it is to become a therapist, how the lack of oversight is putting vulnerable people at risk, and how making meaning through writing our own narratives about coercive control allows us to take back power and make sense of our experiences.
Also, host Abigail looks back on the last five episodes of WRITING COERCIVE CONTROL, a podcast funded alongside her work-in-progress novel ORDINARY WOMAN TURNS 30, an autofiction novel about a woman dealing with the aftermath of coercive control in an intimate partner relationship as she approaches her 30th birthday. The previous five episodes of the pod feature discussions on state control with Sahar Delijani, parental control with Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, industry control and #metoo with Winnie M Li, domestic and romantic relationship coercive control with memoirist Chimene Suleyman, and exploring the same topic in poetry with Kim Moore.
Follow Carla on Instagram here.
Carla’s novel FIFTY MINUTES is available now to purchase or order through all good bookstores.
Follow Abigail as she writes her novel on Substack at abigailtarttelin.substack.com
Send your questions and comments for the podcast to Abigail’s https://Instagram.com/abigailtarttelin_
Abigail’s novels FLICK, DEAD GIRLS, and GOLDEN BOY are available now to purchase or order through all good bookstores.
This podcast is co-produced by Abigail and Clear Lines Festival. Clear Lines started in 2015 as the UK's first festival addressing sexual assault and consent through the arts and discussion. Since then, their events have continued to promote a survivor-centered dialogue that emphasizes creativity, community, and artistic self-expression. You can check out their website with videos of past events at:
https://clearlines.org.uk/
And sign up to their newsletter to learn about upcoming events through their network:
https://clearlines.org.uk/contact-us/
They also offer a free downloadable creative writing guide for survivors of sexual violence and abuse:
https://clearlines.org.uk/our-free-creative-writing-guide-for-survivors-available-here/
This podcast is supported by Arts Council England.
Writing Coercive Control Episode 6: Carla Jenkins