From Session to Sentence (and Back)

From Session to Sentence (and Back): Writer-Psychotherapists on Clinical Practice and the Creative Process

Come join us at The Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis for a conversation between writer-psychotherapists Nuar Alsadir, Michelle O'Brien and Anthony Weigh. Panelists will discuss the experience of pursuing a clinical practice alongside a creative writing life. The evening will include a Q & A moderated by Claire Donato, Assistant Chairperson of Writing at Pratt Institute, author of Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts (Archway Editions), and psychoanalyst-in-training.

Panelist Bios:

Nuar Alsadir’s most recent book, Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation (Graywolf Press/Fitzcarraldo Editions), was a TIME Magazine must-read of 2022 and a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 2022. She is also the author of two poetry collections: Fourth Person Singular, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Forward Prize for Best Collection, and More Shadow Than Bird. She is currently working on a book on boredom for Graywolf Press and Fitzcarraldo Editions, a published essay of which was selected for The Best American Essays 2025. She is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and a member of the curatorial board of The Racial Imaginary Institute. She works as a psychoanalyst in private practice and teaches in New York University's Creative Writing MFA program.

M. E. O’Brien is a psychoanalyst in formation. She has a co-authored speculative novel Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 (Common Notions, 2022), and a non-fiction work, Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care (Pluto, 2023). Her work has been translated into seven languages. She has been involved in multiple collaborative publications, including as an editorial collective member of Pinko, a magazine of gay communism, and Pinko’s book, After Accountability: A Critical Genealogy of the Concept (Haymarket, 2025). Currently she is in analytic training at Pulsion in New York City, and in private practice as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker.

Anthony Weigh MPhil., L.P. FIPA, is a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City. He is a graduate and Associate Member at IPTAR. Prior to analytic training Anthony was a graduate of Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art. His post graduate research degree is from the University of Birmingham (UK) in playwriting and dramaturgy. Anthony is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose original works and adaptations for the stage have been performed in Europe, North America and Australia. His plays and adaptations are published by Faber and Faber (London). Anthony was Playwright-in-Residence at the National Theatre of Great Britain and Associate Artist at both the Bush Theatre and Donmar Warehouse in London.

Cover image: From Der Naturen Bloeme, date ca. 1350. Free use from the National Library of the Netherlands.

Below: Author photos of Nuar Alsadir, M.E. O'Brien, and Anthony Weigh.