“Literary” writers Junot Diaz and Karen Russell talk about:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– the short story form and why they persist with it;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– the challenge of minority representation in media;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 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);\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– dystopias as consolation in a crisis of helplessness;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– what they have learned from teaching;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– how students learn better when they don’t see the subject as “instrumental” to some purpose;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– how to maintain mental and emotional health as a writer with the help of your support network;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– literatures of recognition vs literatures of estrangement, and how the latter bypasses our defences and enables us to access extreme emotional truths;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– how specificity helps to communicate universality;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– what a utopia might look like;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– what they don’t feel able to address in their work yet;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– how to balance a writer’s and reader’s perspective; and\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– how readers will put up with a lot of confusion if you can activate their generosity with human vulnerability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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(1.5 hours. Considerable swearing from Diaz.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n