WRITING LIFE INTO LANGUAGE: THE CRUCIBLE OF CRAFT

1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion

WRITING LIFE INTO LANGUAGE: THE CRUCIBLE OF CRAFT

A writer’s material—for fact and for fiction—is mined from lived experience. But what we have lived and learned transforms as it passes into language, a transformation that raises questions about truth and form, privacy and compassion. Justin Torres, who burst onto the scene in 2011 with his intimate novel of boyhood, We the Animals, joins Michael Cunningham, whose forthcoming memoir, Unsayable, delves into these questions of language and life. Joining them in conversation are Christine Ma-Kellams, who brings her work as a psychologist to bear on her novel, The Band, and in personal essays about everything from her Costco addiction to her commute, and Cammie McGovern, who has made a career of writing books about and for children with disabilities, such as her 2021 memoir Hard Landing about her autistic son’s transition to adulthood. Miles Harvey, author of The Registry of Forgotten Objects, will moderate.

Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.