"Story as Survival: LGBTQ Memoir" Panelists: Barrie Jean Borich * Paul Lisicky * Julie Marie Wade * Julia Koets AWP 2016: Association of Writers & Writing Programs Los Angeles, California
This panel will discuss how memoir can be a form of survival for queer writers and readers. How does the book act as a dwelling place for LGBTQ writers who are rejected from their families and communities; how does memoir allow for liberatory performances of gender and sexuality; how can queer writers re-write history in crucial ways? Many of the writers on this panel are also fiction writers or poets: how are the stakes different when it comes to writing memoir about sexuality and gender? In discussing memory, dwelling, and survival within queer memoirs, we will address how the narrative of sexual difference reads for an audience whose experience is different from our own, and ask what we want to achieve with that audience. By including LGBTQ panelists at various stages in their careers and from various backgrounds, from graduate students to well-known writers and professors, we will provide a well-rounded perspective on an important topic.
"When a Poem Can't Tell the Whole Story: Why Poets are Taking up Nonfiction" Panelists: Gregory Orr * Katharine Coles * Danielle Deulen * Linwood Rumney * Julia Koets AWP 2014: Association of Writers & Wrting Programs Seattle, Washington Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1 Friday, February 28, 2014 10:30 am to 11:45 am
As creative nonfiction becomes more popular and expands to push against the boundaries of convention, poets increasingly adopt it as a second genre. Five poets who also write nonfiction and who are at various stages in their careers discuss nonfiction from the poet’s perspective. How does working in two genres change the way we think about craft? How does writing in a second genre open up career opportunities in a difficult job market?