“Literary” writers Junot Diaz and Karen Russell talk about: 

– the short story form and why they persist with it; 

– the challenge of minority representation in media;

– why they include genre elements in their work (part of it is being able to include elements of experience that general culture doesn’t want to talk about); 

– dystopias as consolation in a crisis of helplessness; 

– what they have learned from teaching; 

– how students learn better when they don’t see the subject as “instrumental” to some purpose; 

– how to maintain mental and emotional health as a writer with the help of your support network; 

– literatures of recognition vs literatures of estrangement, and how the latter bypasses our defences and enables us to access extreme emotional truths; 

– how specificity helps to communicate universality; 

– what a utopia might look like; 

– what they don’t feel able to address in their work yet; 

– how to balance a writer’s and reader’s perspective; and 

– how readers will put up with a lot of confusion if you can activate their generosity with human vulnerability. 

(1.5 hours. Considerable swearing from Diaz.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqb7bcSZcDo&feature=share