September 29, 2018
\nUniversity of Washington Bothell
\nNorth Creek Events Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the role of creative thinking and writing in an age of alternating facts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The twenty-first century is increasingly taking shape as a time of human conceit, environmental disaster and political hostility, governed by the concerted effort to undermine the status of facts and truth as consensual markers of social reality. In some ways, it might seem that social and political life have begun to deploy artistic strategies: policy grounded in fiction\u2014with deep irreverence for social, cultural, and environmental consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But art has, in some ways, always been post-truth\u2014allowing creative freedom to invent and interpret facts, sometimes writing fictions, other times rewriting reality proper. As such, it may also be possible that art might have strategies for productive engagement with reality after the death of the fact. Against the neoliberal tendency to evacuate artistic thought from social and political life, perhaps it is in the language of creative writing and poetics that the new codes of social living ought to be written?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Convergence 2018 provides a forum to celebrate the ways that creative thinking and writing can be used to create pressure points on truth and its manipulation\u2014grounded in fiction, poetry, art, and performances that can be such powerful companions to an age of alternating facts because they are situated on nodes of autobiographical intensity, personal speculation, and socially-minded intervention. Differently put, art comes from life\u2014in ways sometimes direct, sometimes ephemeral, but always with a supposition of personal stakes that understands creative practice as a social gesture. This is poetics for the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please click here to read the presenters’ bios.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 9:00 Welcome 9:15 Featured Reading by Steven Dunn 10:45 Panel: Writing Art 12:15 Lunch & book sales<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1:00 Panel Technologies of the Real 2:30 Featured Reading by Srikanth Reddy Break<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4:00 Panel: Person & Place 5:30 Featured reading by Danielle Dutton Book Sales<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday, September 28th Join panelists and community members for a group reading at the Elliott Bay Book Company. This year we are excited to partner with Hugo House<\/a> in Seattle, where several of our presenters will offer writing workshops during the week of the Convergence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These 3-hour workshops are limited in space, so early registration is recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students in the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics are eligible for a 10% discount using the code convergence2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, September 27, 2PM-5PM: “Applying Film Techniques to Writing” with Steven Dunn<\/p>\n\n\n\n Film uses space and lighting to evoke certain emotions. We will look at ways to make sentences and paragraphs function like how cameras zoom, pan, tilt, etc. We\u2019ll consider what is in the visual frame\u2014the composition of a scene. We\u2019ll discuss high-key and low-key lighting and what effects those produce. We\u2019ll also view a short video that summarizes camera angles, as well as read and examine passages with a filmic quality. Think of some of your favorite films, and we\u2019ll also discuss some of the techniques and try to transfer them to writing. Sunday, September 30, 10AM-1PM: “At the Wrackline” with Terri WitekCONFERENCE SCHEDULE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\nJeanne Heuving, Professor and founding Director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIntroduction by Rebecca Brown<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nKristina Podesva, Colleen Barry & Thea Quiray Tagle<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nLytle Shaw, Abraham Avnisan & Katherine Behar<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIntroduction: Sarah Dowling<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDao Strom, Terri Witek & Dylan Hogan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIntroduction by Rebecca Brown<\/p>\n\n\n\nOther Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alternating Facts: A Convergence Reading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n7:00PM-
\nElliott Bay Books: 1521 10th Ave
\nSeattle, WA
\n98122<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFeaturing performances by: Anida Yoeu Ali, Rebecca Brown, Steven Dunn, Danielle Dutton, Jeanne Heuving, Joe Milutis, Srikanth Reddy, Natalie Singer, Dao Strom, Pimone Triplett, and Terri Witek<\/p>\n\n\n\nHugo House Workshops<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\nFee: $89
\nRegister HERE>><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“At the Wrackline” is a generative workshop that takes physical and imaginary lines in space as challenges to make new work. Examples include writers and artists\u2014all practitioners welcome.
\nFee: $89
\nRegister HERE>><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n