Spring Conference 08: What is Nonfiction?
Wednesday April 16 & Thursday April 17
500 Hall of Languages
Judith Kitchen--"The Non in Nonfiction"
Minnie Bruce Pratt--"Stranger than Fiction: Some Thoughts on Essaying Creative Nonfiction"
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
April 16
12:30-1:30 |
|
Judith Kitchen and Minnie Bruce Pratt on the question "What is
Nonfiction? |
1:30-2:00 |
|
Q & A |
2:00-2:30 |
|
Readings by Judith Kitchen and Minnie Bruce Pratt |
2:30-3:00 |
|
Break |
3:00-4:15 |
|
Open Mic Nonfiction Readings: PWIs, TAs,
FTF, Majors, Minors |
4:15 |
|
Wine and cheese reception, book signing |
April 17
Student workshops with Judith Kitchen
12:30-1:50 Lunch with Writing Program Teachers, Writing Majors and Minors
Judith Kitchen is the author of a novel, The House on Eccles Road, winner of the S. Mariella Gable Prize from Graywolf Press, two collections of essays, Distance and Direction (Coffeehouse Press) and Only the Dance (U. of South Carolina Press), as well as a critical study of William Stafford, Writing the World (Oregon State University Press). She is co-editor of two collections of short essays, In Short and In Brief (both W. W. Norton), and the editor of a third collection, Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction. Her awards include an NEA fellowship in poetry, a Pushcart Prize in nonfiction, and recognition as a distinguished teacher of adults. She has been the invited guest at many residencies, including Centrum, Split Rock Arts Program, The Vermont Studio Center, and the Chautauqua Writers Institute. Kitchen has judged a number of national awards, including the Pushcart Prize for poetry, the Theodore Roethke Prize, the Anhinga Prize, the AWP Nonfiction Award, the Bellingham Review's Annie Dillard award for creative nonfiction, the Bush Foundation fellowships, and the Oregon Book Award. She is an Advisory and Contributing Editor for The Georgia Review where she regularly reviews poetry. In addition, she has the distinction of being called—by Newsday—the Evel Knievel of literature.
Minnie Bruce Pratt is a nationally acclaimed poet and writer who has
inspired a whole generation of feminists and activists. She has published
six books of poetry, The Sound of One Fork, We Say We Love Each Other ,
Crime Against Nature , Walking Back Up Depot Street , The Money Machine ,
and The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems . Minnie Bruce also has
published collections of autobiographical and political essays, including
Rebellion: Essays 1980-1991 , which includes her feminist classic, the
essay “Identity: Skin Blood Heart." With Elly Bulkin and Barbara Smith,
she co-authored Yours In Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives On
Anti-Semitism and Racism . Her book of prose stories about gender boundary
crossing S/HE appeared in 1995. Minnie Bruce is also completing, with noted
transnational theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, a volume of theoretical
dialogues that is tentatively titled At Home in the Struggle.
Spring Conference Readings are available at the WP Professional Development Blackboard site.
Sponsored by the Writing Program with generous support from the English
Department.
Welcome to the Nonfiction Reading Series sponsored by the Syracuse University Writing Program.
The Nonfiction Reading series features local, national, and international writers of all types of nonfiction: memoir and autobiography, the personal essay, political essays, and historical narrative among others. The series launches officially in spring 2008 with the signature event "What is Nonfiction?" headlined by Judith Kitchen and Minnie Bruce Pratt. In addition to sponsoring local, regional, national, and international writers, the series will feature undergraduate, graduate, and faculty writers from the SU
campus presenting their works in-progress.
In fall 2008, a roster of speakers for 2008-2009 will be announced.
Check back to see announcements about upcoming Nonfiction Series Events.
