How do writers of color reconcile their art and identity? How do we keep from losing our own voices beneath the burden of "representing" our cultures? How do we craft and hone narratives that accentuate the uniqueness of our experiences WITHOUT bowing to appropriation or stereotypes? How do we silence critics, old and new, familiar and foreign, in order to persist in our art? How do we become commercially viable, without succumbing to the fallacies of "selling out?" How do we keep the old neighborhood, its conflicting stories, hypocrisies and anxieties, from sabotaging our flow? Attendees will be challenged to confront, reflect, discuss and then write about these complexities unique to writers of color. Thoughtful works (by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxanne Gay, Junot Díaz and July Westhale), along with ground-rules for "open sharing," will help facilitate an engaging format—part provocative discussion, part reflective writing workshop and share around.
Fiction Writer & Poet, CHALLENGES FOR THE DELUSIONAL PART 2
Joe Costal fell in love with all things #Muse as one of the 2017 GrubStreet Visiting Writer scholarship winners. He is an Assistant Editor at Barrelhouse. His writing has appeared in dozens of magazines and journals, most recently in The Maine Review, Ponder Review, and Pif Magazine... Read More →
