Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Failure of Language

11.21.24

What happens when language fails? Writers are always in search of the mot juste, the perfect turn of poetic phrase, the best sequence of sentences for a story or essay. But in real life, communicating is not always about the most creative arrangement of words, and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can hurt someone you love, especially when it’s in writing. This week consider writing a personal essay that reflects on memories of past experiences, situations, or encounters in which something went awry in the process of expressing yourself in words—perhaps due to crossed wires around usage, tone, or context. What forces were underlying the discrepancy or distance between intended and perceived sentiment? How does looking closely at this incident transform your understanding of language and its consequences?

Book Bans and the Global Battle of Freedom of Expression

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In this event from the 2024 Atlantic Festival on the topic of books bans in the United States and the world, Atlantic staff writer Gal Beckerman moderates a discussion with Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association, and Victoria Scott-Miller, owner of Liberation Station Bookstore, as well as a discussion with Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad and author and activist Rania Mamoun.

Glory Edim: Gather Me

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“Everything that I was able to write and put into this book was very liberating.” For this LIVE From NYPL event, Glory Edim talks about her decision to write Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me (Ballantine Books, 2024) and the underrepresentation of Black women in the memoir genre, as well as the complexities of memory in a conversation with Aminatou Sow.

Patricia Coral: Women Surrounded by Water

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In this Politics and Prose Bookstore event, Patricia Coral reads from her debut memoir, Women Surrounded by Water (Mad Creek Books, 2024), and talks about the experimental nature of her book in a conversation with Susan Coll. Women Surrounded by Water is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

AAWW and Kundiman Present: Emerging Writers in Conversation

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In this event presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Kundiman, writers Hannah Bae, Jen Lue, Gina Chung, and Rajat Singh read from their work and participate in a conversation moderated by Thuy Phan, regional cochair of Kundiman Northeast.

Dealing

11.14.24

Spend some time jotting down notes or a list of things you have had a strong aversion to or found extremely disagreeable, allowing yourself to think generally, but honestly, about issues revolving around contemporary politics, ethics, or culture. In James Baldwin’s 1963 book The Fire Next Time, he wrote: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” Can you relate? Write an essay that examines the various components that form the basis for your grievances, where or from whom they might have originated, and how they may have been reinforced over time. Reflect on the pain beneath it all, if you were to reckon with this clinging to hate.

Their Borders, Our World

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In this event at the Southbank Centre in London celebrating the launch of the Palestine Festival of Literature’s anthology of essays, Their Borders, Our World: Building New Solidarities With Palestine (Haymarket Books, 2024), editor Mahdi Sabbagh and writers Jehan Bseiso and Mirza Waheed discuss the question of solidarity in a conversation moderated by Zena Agha.

Situationships

11.7.24

A situationship, as defined by the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is “a romantic relationship in which the couple are not official partners.” The validity of situationships has become the center of discussions, from Reddit posts to the list of finalists for Oxford Languages 2023 word of the year. In a recent Electric Literature piece, author Christine Ma-Kellams argues that situationships make for great stories, including within novels by Elif Batuman, Rachel Cusk, and Jennifer Egan. Write a personal essay on your understanding of situationships. Have you ever found yourself in one? Was there a mutual agreement or were there unsaid uncertainties in the relationship? Consider how you would define a situationship and what that means to you.

André Aciman: Roman Year

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In this Politics and Prose Bookstore event, André Aciman reads from his memoir Roman Year (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024) and talks about the loss he experienced during his adolescence in Rome and how writing has helped him come to terms with his identity in a conversation with Marie Arana. Roman Year is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

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