S265. Uncreative & Unoriginal: Notes on Conceptual Writing

Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4
Saturday, March 1, 2014
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

 

The poet Kenneth Goldsmith posits conceptual writing as a response to the digitization of language. For Goldsmith, the unparalleled linguistic materiality of our digital age necessitates a different conception of the "poetic.” In contrast to more traditional poetics, conceptual writing de-centers the writing subject with strategies such as collage, excision, and appropriation. This panel asks what conceptual writing might teach us about beauty, originality, and the creative process.


Participants

Moderator:

Devon Wootten teaches at Whitman College. His poems have appeared in Fence, Aufgabe, and Colorado Review. He is currently ABD in the Comparative Literature Department at the University of Iowa.

Catherine Wagner has published four books of poetry and various chapbooks. Her latest book is Nervous Device. She is part of the S(W)OP poetry and performance collective in southwest Ohio and professor of English in the MA program in creative writing at Miami University, Ohio.

Marie Buck is the author of Life & Style and a chapbook, Amazing Weapons. Recent work has appeared in West Wind Review, OMG!, Rethinking Marxism, and online at Two Serious Ladies, and her work has been anthologized in Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing.

K. Silem Mohammad is the author of several books of poetry, including Deer Head Nation, Breathalyzer, and The Front. He is a professor of English and Writing at Southern Oregon University.

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