MFA Residency Public Lecture and Reading Schedule for Saturday, January 5th

Saturday, January 5th     

Readings and lectures are held in the Region Room of Blue Ridge Center at Blue Ridge Assembly. 84 Blue Ridge Circle; Black Mountain, NC 

Faculty Lectures        

9:30 AM                   

SARAH STONE  –  Eruption/Incandescence  

In those moments when the suppressed breaks into the open as conflict, as an unexpected action, as a flight of language, or as a confession, a work of fiction or poetry can reveal its teeth. Maybe the characters’ or speaker’s passions take over, maybe there’s a fight or truth that’s been on its way for a while. These eruptions can alter the rules a work has set out for itself in crucial structural and psychological terms and can create openings for complex resistance and re-evaluation on the part of the reader. Possible texts include Gabrielle Brant Freeman, “Girltrap”; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah; Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger; andGeorge Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo.

10:45 AM

                             CHRISTINE KITANO –  The Poetics of Witness                                                                

This lecture will examine the literature of witness, that is, literature that aims, as Carolyn Forché states, to mark “a resistance to false attempts at unification.” Reality is difficult and messy, but the literature of witness and theories of trauma work to elucidate the troubled relationships between author, language, and subject. At stake in these issues are the following questions: What are our responsibilities as readers? As writers? How do we write as witness to the world, and how do we evaluate such writing? Is language capable of bearing witness? What do we do when language is inadequate?  Possible texts: poems by Plath, Lowell, John Yau, Gregory Pardlo, Cathy Linh Che, Solmaz Sharif; fiction and nonfiction TBD.

Faculty Readings 8:15 PM

Daisy Fried

C. J. Hribal

Marisa Silver

Dominic Smith

Connie Voisine  

The public is welcome to attend the morning lectures and evening readings in fiction and poetry offered during the Master of Fine Arts Program winter residency.  Events last approximately one hour. Admission is free. The schedule is subject to change. PLEASE NOTE: The winter residency is being held at Blue Ridge Assemblyin Black Mountain, NC, not on the Warren Wilson College campus.

For more information, call the MFA Office: (828) 771-371