S250. By One's Own Hand: Writing About Suicide Loss

Room 11, Tampa Convention Center, First Floor
Saturday, March 10, 2018
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

 

Suicide loss is a subject often shrouded in shame and silence. How do we write narratives of suicide loss (through poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction) that are honest and cathartic, but also artful? The panelists, all survivors of suicide loss, will explore the ethics, emotions, and craft of writing about suicide.


Participants

Moderator:

Gayle Brandeis is the author of The Art of Misdiagnosis (memoir), The Selfless Bliss of the Body (poetry). Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (craft), and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (winner of The Bellwether Prize), Self Storage, Delta Girls, and My Life with the Lincolns.

Nick Flynn has published nine books, including My Feelings, Some Ether, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands, The Reenactments, The Ticking Is the Bomb, and Blind Huber. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Linda Gray Sexton is the author of four novels, two books of nonfiction, and three memoirs, including Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back To My Mother, Anne Sexton, and Half In Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide. She is a regular contributor to Huffington Post and a freelance editorial consultant.

Ruth Nolan, MFA, MA, is the author of Ruby Mountain and editor of No Place for a Puritan: The Literature of CA's Deserts. She is professor of creative writing and Native American literature at College of the Desert.

Rob Roberge is the author of four books of fiction. His fifth book, the memoir, Liar, was released in 2016.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center